One Last Mission

Underside, San Palomino Desert

Day 17

With the setting of the sun, a chapter in two ponies' lives was ended. They stood some distance away from my daughter and I, talking to each other for what would be the last time. Their voices hushed, their words out of my ear’s reach, I was with an inability to know what was going on between the two. That was okay, I didn’t need to hear the goodbyes of a husband and wife if they didn’t want me to. Watching gave me more than enough of an idea as to what was going on anyways.

They smiled, laughed, cursed, cried for each other, but more than anything else, they gave one another love. The last bits of love that both of them could ever directly give to one another outside of a photo or memory orb. Jokes, harsh remarks, every other feeling they had for each other and those around them was being unleashed in one, final emotional tirade. It made Rhapsody’s goodbye to Anchor feel cheap, lesser, but I knew that wasn’t the case.

Different couples had different ways of handling things. This was not one of the ways I could judge them. Not that judging would feel right at all, especially when two lives before me were being ripped apart.

Their goodbyes ended with a hug, Willow lifting Sharpshot off the ground and squeezing him hard enough to hear pops and crack from the ghouls body. He took it like a champ, trying his best to return the bone crushing hug. The most surprising part was seeing him stay standing after; if that had been me, I would have very likely been lying on my back for the next several minutes. A final few words were exchanged, and then Sharpshot walked over to us.

He stopped for a moment when he reached our side, but refused to turn around to look at Willow.

“As much as I would like to stay and see her off completely, it’s not safe enough for me. Tartarus, even accepting that hug was a risk,” he said to me, a mixture of pain and sorrow making up his voice. “I’ll be back at the motel. Please see her off well, both of you.”

“Of course, Sharpshot,” I replied, nodding my head.

He chuckled at my response, a small, melancholic smile on his face. A wordless thank you was passed to me via the sorrow in his eyes, and then he headed off. I watched him until he disappeared from sight, heart unable to hide the pain this entire situation gave me. There was only so much one could do to hide hurt, no matter how much somepony asked you to not to.

“Are you okay… mom?” Gemini asked quietly.

I had to think about her question longer than I wanted to admit, eyes focused on the ground below me. Yet, even when I had an answer for her, it felt impossible to give a real answer. All I did was give the exact same smile Sharpshot used on me, and mimic it in front of my daughter.

“Come on,” I said, nudging her forward with a wing. “Let's say goodbye to Willow.”

Gemini accepted my non-answer, and the nudge was more than enough to get her moving. As we made our way up to Willow, the alicorn sat down and gave a big, hopeful grin. If it was fake or not didn’t matter. The message behind it was clear: don’t give the Goddess any means to classify it as a painful or sad memory. The tears had to be left for later, for the sake of our friend and her identity.

“If you two don’t mind me speaking first, I have something important to say,” Willow said. Both Gemini and I nodded immediately. With a hoof to her throat, and so forced coughs, Willow opened her mouth instead of using telepathy. “Thank you both, for traveling with me these last few weeks, and for helping Sharpy out.”

Her voice sounded healed, or at least as healed as it could be. It was still raspy, each word sounding like it was speaking, but Willow didn’t care. There were hints of what it used to be, back when Dead Hooves was alive. Low, sultry, and yet very clearly holding that hint of emotionlessness that was connected with insanity. A voice that was likely trained from the pony who originally owned her, either for his own twisted pleasure or to make it easier to get certain types of ponies to fall into her clutches.

A murderer’s voice. It was not rude or wrong to call it that, especially when Willow was as open about enjoying it as she was.

“Helping Sharpy?” Gemini repeated back to the alicorn. Her head lowered slightly, ears following suit as she did. “I, uh, don’t remember helping him.”

“Maybe not directly, but have you seen him this past week?” Willow asked rhetorically. “It’s probably the most I’ve ever seen him willingly hang out with anypony that isn’t me. That’s good, he won’t go feral then. At least I hope not.”

“You’re sure this has to happen today?” I asked her, taking one more step forward. “I know we would have gone our separate ways when I headed to Our Haven, but it feels like–”

“It has to be now,” she chimed in. “Not just for Sharpy’s sake, but for the others who might get hurt when she next decides to use those words on me.”

Willow and I specifically stared at each other for a decent amount of time in silence. I had no argument, not with what I’d seen Willow capable of when her bloodlust kicked in. If that happened in the middle of Underside or any other settlement, who knew how many others might get killed or hurt before she died. Willow wasn’t ready for that yet, her choice to keep living made that clear enough.

Tired as she claimed to be, dying was not on her mind.

“Still, thank you both for being with me these last few weeks,” Willow said, pulling both Gemini and myself in with her wings. “It was nice to talk with you, eat with you, and kill with you. I’ll never forget it, I promise.”

“It was… it was nice getting to know you too,” Gemini said. There was a large amount of discomfort at the sudden physical contact, but she didn’t wiggle free. Whether it was out of fear or simply trying to not worry the alicorn responsible was impossible to tell. “Thanks for listening to me. It’s nice, knowing that I’m not the only pony who has gone through that same pain.”

“Glad I could help,” Willow said. She pulled her wings back and crouched just enough so that her head was level with Gemini. “Just remember, you got a mom to talk to about it all too. I’m certain Danse is more than capable of taking the baggage on.”

“Already done so,” I replied, giving my daughter a wide smile. She gave a much smaller one back to me before my attention shifted back to Willow. “Thanks for saving my ass back in the M.A.S. hub, and also for, um…”

I felt a blush rise up in my cheeks as I remembered our one night stand. It was an incredible night, it really was, but the shame at knowing I had also cheated on Anchor in the process hurt. I knew I’d never see him again, of course I did, but letting go of somepony you genuinely loved isn’t easy.

The shame must have been obvious on my face, because Willow responded to me trailing off with a couple light pats on the head. I didn’t notice that I was hanging my head until I had to lift it to look at her. She chuckled at me.

“He’d forgive you, I’m certain,” she replied. Then, she took a step back, and all the joy in her face faded away. “Anyways, Danse, before we leave I’m being… required to do something. I think you already know what.”

Gemini looked between the two of us, a mixture of worry and confusion on her face. “Is something wrong?”

No need to figure out what Willow was hinting at. The Goddess never got her chance to talk with me days earlier due to the aforementioned one night stand, and I’m certain she had words for her ‘newest’ alicorn afterwards. Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I prepared myself as much as possible in the short time given.

“Gemini,” I called out. “Head back to the motel.”

“H-h-head back?” she asked, looking at me with wide eyes. “I-is what Willow asking you to do bad?”

“Yeah, and it is entirely out of her control too,” I said, hoping inwardly that it was enough of an explanation to ward off any other questions. “So please, Gemmy, head back to the motel and stay there until–”

“No, no, it is more than alright for her to stay.”

If the way Gemmy’s entire body tensed up wasn’t enough of a hint at who had just spoken, the sudden switch to telepathy was. It was that same voice I had heard back in the medical clinic, coming from Willow and yet clearly not being her. My teeth grinded against each other as I looked at the alicorn, head held high in a look of superiority. She trotted back up to us, or more specifically, she trotted up to Gemini.

“After all, you are an alicorn, and therefore more than worthy to join our Unity,” the Goddess said, eyeing up my daughter like a slaver did a slave. Gemmy took a step back, and the Goddess took another towards her. Another step back, then another, and another, but each time the thing controlling Willow’s erased the distance just as quickly as it was gained. “You’re mother is a most unusual alicorn after all, and we’d love nothing more than to see that our dear Willow is not parted from those in her life that are more… respectful.”

“I… I…,” Gemmy tried to respond, but every bit of confidence she had gained in the past week and a half seemed to shatter under the gaze of the Goddess.

Without a second thought, I darted between the two of them, acting as a wall between the Goddess and my daughter. One of her eyelids twitched, sneering at me as if I was a disobedient foal. Where I imagined some of her drones might have cowered or backed away in fear of what she might do, I did not. Stance firm, I met her sneer with a glare, an animalistic snarl leaving my mouth.

“We did not ask you to stand between us,” the Goddess said.

“Do I look like I care what you think?” I spat back. “You will not take my daughter from me.”

“Take? We are not taking her from you,” she replied, seeming to do all in her power to not let her anger get the better of her. “We merely wish to bring her under our wings and keep her safe, as you have done. It will lead our numbers to grow, and it will keep her from ever facing real harm.”

“At the likely cost of you stripping away parts of what makes Gemini who she is,” I replied. Something violent and feral was rising within me, disconnected from Rhapsody and Dead Hooves. “Do you think I’m blind to what you do to ponies? I know what you do to all the hurt your alicorns had faced before joining you, I know about Lacunae. Even ignoring her, I’d be a damn idiot to not see the happy couple you’ve torn apart before my very eyes!”

“A dumpster is necessary to clean out the trash in one’s house, and the mind is no different,” she replied, placing one of Willow’s forelegs right in front of my muzzle as if preparing to run me over, “and do not mention that murderer before us. We have no doubt that Open Heart has done nothing good for her in all the years she’s spent separated from us.”

Wither her foreleg as close as it was, the feral piece of me only seemed to get louder. It told me to bite, maim, and do everything within my power to keep this monster away from my child. The maternal side of me was affecting it just as much as it was affecting my maternal side. Every violent action it asked of me seemed to use Gemini as validation, and it took a huge effort to keep myself from acting upon it.

“I have been around them longer than you have in Willow Wisp’s entire time as an alicorn,” I said. With each movement of my mouth, I seemed to have to convince myself even more not to give in to these odd instincts as I brushed against the fur of the leg.

“Yet that time is so little, compared to everything we have seen.” She pushed it further into me, forcing me to look straight up into Willow’s eyes as the Goddess loomed over me. She leaned over just enough so that her face was practically all I could see in front of me. “Need we tell you about those in our Unity that he killed on that day? How about all the innocent lives since then? I can tell you every sin that ghoul has committ–”

With every growing second, and each word the Goddess said, those violent urges grew greater and greater until I neither wanted or was able to hold them back. Mid sentence, with her more focused on doing everything in her power to intimidate me into backing off, I opened my mouth wide and bit down on Willow’s leg. The Goddess roared, Willow’s head shooting up in pain as I did everything in my power to pierce flesh with flat teeth. In time, I did indeed manage to draw blood.

As a coppery taste hit my tongue, my eyes went wide. Despite having tasted my own blood several times as I coughed it up for one reason or another, Willow’s had a flavor to it that I could not explain. It was better than any dish I had ever had. The taste made me want more blood.

I licked at the blood, and the craving grew. I needed more.

More!

“Danse, focus!”

Rhapsody and Dead Hooves’ voices cut through the animalistic instincts, my focus turning away from the delicious blood and back on defending Gemmy. The Goddess was practically throwing a fit as she attempted to remove us from Willow’s limb. She may have been in the stronger body, but I had planted myself firmly enough where my hooves didn’t leave the ground. Didn’t matter how much she tried to shake me loose, I wasn’t letting go until I was certain she was no longer a threat.

“You disgraceful child!” the Goddess exclaimed, growling at me as she continued to useless flail about. “Let go of us this instant.”

A spell came to my mind, no doubt courtesy of Dead Hooves, and I knew that was the thing I needed to end this. All I needed was for the Goddess to look at me, and she was watching me like a hawk. Lighting up my horn, I let go of her hoof, briefly made sure my horn was pointed at her head, and then closed my eyes. A sound not too dissimilar to the flash of a camera sounds out from seemingly nowhere, a burst of light visible even with my eyelids still shut. As soon as the light faded, I opened them and looked at Willow’s body.

She was staring down in my direction, but it would be far more accurate to say she was looking past me and not at me. Her pupils were wide, and though she blinked wildly everything else about her seemed to be motionless. Taking a few steps back, I gave either Willow or the Goddess – whichever recovered from the short term memory wipe first – the time to get themselves back together.

“Did I do it correctly?” I whispered to my inner selves.

“Yes. This is normal, trust us,” they replied. “How are you though? You seemed to kind of… loose yourself for a minute.”

“I feel okay. Might just be another side effect of our odd existence,” I replied, subconsciously rolling my tongue along my lips for whatever blood had dripped onto them. I basked in the coppery goodness, my entire body briefly convulsing in delight. “It’s wonderful, perfect, and oddly… nostalgic.”

“D-D-Danse?”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t forget,” I replied, smiling like a madmare. I looked back to Gemini, taking note of how she was shaking in place. “Are you okay, Gemmy?”

“I-I-I, um, yeah,” she said, turning her head to the left. “Though, uh, I think we got noticed.”

Turning my attention from my daughter to the general area, I quickly noticed she was right. It wasn’t a huge crowd, the ponies making it up wearing terrified stares and shocked expressions. Some were looking at me, some were focused on the still unmoving Willow Wisp. Those scared faces were not the big concern however.

We had been next to Underside’s walls after all, and two of the Shattered Moon’s own were standing guard on both sides. One of them had come up closer to us, though clearly taking a wider turn around Willow. The alicorn was starting to move again, though they were robotic and slow due to their brain still gathering itself back up.

“Neither of you two move,” the guard said. He waited a second, as if expecting one of us to disobey. When that didn’t happen, he turned his attention to me. “I saw a lot of what was going on, but I’m afraid I’m a bit confused as to what happened.”

I briefly looked at Willow, and then back to the guard. No reason to hide what happened; I knew whatever trouble she was about to get in is something she could easily get out of. The alicorn was good at that.

“Goddess possessed her and tried to take my daughter from me,” I explained. “That’s all sir. Just protecting my own.”

He turned to Willow, the mare finally seeming to be completely there. The shame and disgust on her face was plain for everypony pleasant to see.

“That’s accurate, sir,” she said, just loud enough for us all to hear.

“Then I’m sure you understand that, if this happens again, the Shattered Moon will personally get involved,” the number replied. Willow nodded in response, though he probably needed to hear it as little as I did. He likely already had a good enough idea of what we were doing at the gate, if he had overheard anything. “Have a good day ma’am.”

“You too,” I said. As the guard went about clearing the small crowd away, I turned back to Willow. We both looked at each other, and I now perfectly understood how dangerous her connection to the Unity was for everypony around us. “I guess… we should part ways now.”

“Yeah,” she replied. She did her best to smile at me, a half-hearted chuckle leaving her muzzle. “It was wonderful, getting to know you.”

Just like she had, I forced myself to smile and further store the pain this entire goodbye now held. “Same here. Thanks for being an amazing friend these past few weeks.”

Her smile grew a little, becoming the slightest amount more real than it was previously. She started to turn and head toward the gate, her hooves seeming to drag more than they usually did. Once she reached the other guard that had been posted at the gate, she opened her mouth to talk to them. As he spoke into the walkie-talkie on his chest, Willow looked back at me one more time.

“W-W-Willow!” Gemini called out, grabbing our attention instantly. She hadn’t walked back up to my side, her legs still shaking from her encounter with the Goddess. Eyes filled with tears, she did her best to hide that fear behind a straight posture and high head. “Stay safe out there, please!”

The alicorn’s smile took on a sympathetic tone, tilted ever so slightly to the right. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Spend your energy worrying about those that get in my way.”

With those final words to us, she turned back towards the gate. After a few more seconds, it slowly started to open up, the screech of rusted iron making me wince. As soon as it was high enough, Willow trotted through the gate and into the desert. Gemini as I watched as she trotted away, spread her wings, and then took flight.

That was the last time I saw her.

With the alicorn finally out of sight everything flooded forth. The tears started falling from my face before I had even realized they were there, making trails through my fur before either disappearing or falling to the sand below us. Before my hindlegs could think of collapsing I sat down, doing everything in my power to continue smiling. The worse my tears got, the harder that was.

Gemmy didn’t cry like I had expected her to. She just stared at the gate, eyes watered but nothing more, having already given up any attempts at looking happy for Willow. As she sat down next to me, I was able to notice the increased rate at which she was breathing. She understood better than I did what was going on; Willow had just given up her freedom and happiness for another, different form of enslavement. She now knew that what Willow, Sharpshot, and I had given her could be taken away again at the drop of a hat.

When Gemini and I returned to the motel that night, the sun had disappeared from the sky, the moon taking its place. The two of us spent longer than either of us wanted to think about, staring at the gate, holding onto that thin shred of hope that Willow would come back. It didn’t happen, it was never going to. Willow was gone from Underside, our lives, and existed only in our memories now. She wasn’t dead, but in many ways she might as well have been.

Gemmy went to our motel room to sleep, but I felt compelled to check on Sharpshot. Was hard to imagine him taking it well, considering how long the two of them had been together. The worst part was that him leave was the best possible option. If he had been there when the Goddess took over Willow’s body, things would have definitely gotten more physical than a bite.

“Do we tell him?” My inner selves asked.

I contemplated the thought as I slowly moved from the door of my motel room to Wil… Sharpshot’s room. I knew he would want to know the truth, given his own view of the world. It also felt like the worst possible option. While I was uncertain how a ghoul’s mental state was linked to them going feral, Willow had told me a long time ago what might happen when she left.

“I might not be around forever. My coat wasn’t this blue when I became an alicorn; the killing joke won’t hold her back forever. I’m worried that once I’m gone, he’ll go feral.”

More than anything, she wanted Sharpshot to remain Sharpshot. He had Gemini and myself, but that was it. The risk that this broke me – made him lose a piece of himself – was too high. Far, far too high.

“We keep it a secret,” I mumbled. “He’s better off that way. Ignorance is still sometimes bliss.”

My inner selves did not comment, which either meant they agreed with my decision or didn’t want to argue about it. The end of our talk lined up perfectly with me reaching the door to Sharpshot’s room, meaning it was entirely possible he may have heard some piece of it. If he’d ask, I’d bullshit something, simple as that. With my ‘plan’ in place, I brought a forehoof to the door and knocked on it.

…

Click.

The door either locked or unlocked, whichever one it was unknown to me. Lighting up my horn, I tested the door knob. It turned in my aura, no locking mechanism giving any resistance. I pushed it lightly with a hoof, and it gave, slowly pushing open just enough to see that at least the bedroom light was off. Pushing it open a little more revealed that the only light on was in the bathroom.

I took a step inside, my eyes and nose instantly trailing to the bed. The smell of Willow and I was gone from the covers on the bed, to no surprise. They probably changed them while we were all out and about. Just like everything else about the mare, the memory of that odd, exploratory night was nothing but that: a memory.

If I chose to, it would stay with me for my entire life. Yet the chance of forgetting it was always there.

Another step, and I felt a different fabric from the floor underneath my hoof. Lifting it, I lit my horn and took a look at exactly what was below me. The material was old, all defining features having long faded for an ugly brown. Whether that was its original color was unknown to me, but I didn’t need to in order to figure out where it came from. All I needed to do was look up to the single light source in the entire motel room, being the bathroom.

“Sharpshot?” I called out, stepping closer to it. The door was open enough where I felt confident in saying nothing private was happening inside. Still, I knocked again just in case. “Are… are you in there?”

“Yeah,” he answered, his voice quieter and shier than I had ever heard it before. “You can come in.”

I placed my hoof on the door again, waited a few seconds to contemplate if this was really the best idea, and then slowly pushed it open. The first thing to catch my eyes was more pieces of that same fabric strewn about the tile floor in various sizes and shapes. All of it once belonged to the rags Sharpshot had worn, or at least that which he was able to cut off. It meant that, when I finally looked at the ghoul himself, I was able to see exactly what his body looked like.

Some things I already knew, patches of fur still visible in places on his head, as well as anywhere else that his clothing hadn’t fused to his body. His mane and tail had gotten a little longer in the time that I knew him, though that wasn’t saying much considering how few hairs made them up. His goggles were still attached, more clearly fused to his skin now that his rags had been forcefully removed from his body. What had no doubt once been his stable suit was still there on him, now a part of him due to his encounter years earlier with pink mist. The color had faded there too, though nowhere near as much as whatever he had worn on top of it. The ‘17’ on its back was barely visible anymore.

I could even see his cutie mark now; a heart, stitched back closed after a successful surgery.

Now, without everything covering him, it was easier to tell how young he had been when he had become a ghoul in the first place. Despite the ghoulification, he still looked as if he was thirteen years old, a few years removed from being a foal by the logic of stables. It was hard to believe this was one of the wasteland’s most wanted ponies, especially with the expressionless stare he gave to himself in the mirror.

Sharpshot was standing at the sink, his front hooves on either side of it as he looked in the mirror at himself. His PipBuck, a scalpel, and a healing potion were on it as well. I took a look at the screen of his PipBuck, noticing the extra tabs on his. All of it seemed medical related, which made sense considering what the ghoul had originally been brought up for, back in his stable.

“I know, I look like shit,” he said. Outside of his mouth, nothing moved, his gaze fixated on the pony looking back at him in the mirror. “Not hard to see why my dad was so scared of me, huh? I looked like a freak.”

I didn’t respond at first, instead simply walking into the bathroom proper. I stood behind him and joined in staring at our reflections in the mirror. It felt uncanny looking at myself, the thing staring back at me incorrect in ways that not even I could explain.

“You look like you,” I responded, after some time. “Nopony more, nopony less.”

“Doesn’t make me less of a freak.”

“At least you can recognize yourself. I’m not sure who it is I see in my reflection.”

He tilted his head up to me for a moment, and then resumed lifelessly staring at himself. “And at least you still have a full mane and tail, a fur coat to keep you warm, and a fully developed body.”

“You know, more than a few older mares or stallions back in the Enclave would kill to be young again.”

“It’s not as fun as it sounds. Besides, would you really want to be my age of all things? I think all of them would want to be in their early twenties but…,” he trailed off, tapping the ceramic of the sink’s basin. “You’ve done so many things, had so many laughs, and experienced so much pain, is it really worth it? Growing old sounds nice.”

I stared down at him for a little bit, then looked back up at myself. “Guess we all like things we can’t have.”

All he did was nod. Then, the two of us returned to staring at the mirror, my eyes only ever looking down to eye the healing potion he had left out.

…

“Hey, Rhapsody,” he said, after some time. His front hooves left the sink, his smaller stature even clearer now that he was standing normally. “Can I ask you a favor?”

I did not immediately say anything, hoping he would explain exactly what the favor was. He said nothing, instead using his magic to leave the scalpel into the air. With growing concern, I looked from it, to the healing potion, to Sharpshot, and back to the scalpel again. Rhapsody and Dead Hooves felt something, and their fear made me panic and think of the worst.

Without thinking, I placed a wing between the ghoul and the scalpel. The surgery tool fell to the floor, his eyes drawn to it as it made a tiny tink sound on the tile.

“Sharpshot, I know you are upset about Willow,” I said, subconsciously taking a step back to give the unicorn a little bit more room, “but self harm isn’t the answer. After all, while we can’t replace her, Gemm–”

“I’m not going to harm myself. Well, not doing it for the reason you think anyway,” he replied, scowling as he pushed my wing away. His horn ignited once more, and the scalpel rose up in front of his eyes. He scrunched his muzzle, and then brought it towards the sink. “Got to wash it again, so thanks for that.”

“Whatever your planning, it isn’t necessary,” I told Sharpshot as he turned the sink on via telekinesis and started to scrub the medical tool in his magic. “There is always another way.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Turning the sink off, he looked over the scalpel again. Rotating it around, he made sure no piece of it had gone without attention, and then placed on top of the healing potion.

“Danse, you know how most of the world sees me,” he said, as if I somehow didn’t already know that. “Ponies know me as that one annoying little stallion that always lands his shots, and I feel much the same about them. I don’t like most ponies, I hate the history of my own country, and despise myself even more than both of those things combined.”

He finally looked at me again, water having welled up in the groove between his eyes and goggles.

“Yet I’m still a surgeon, a pony whose job is to give ponies a second chance,” he explained. Once more his magic ignited, and he brought the scalpel up to his face. “I have the opportunity to give myself that now. Discard Sharpshot, bring back Open Heart, and start anew after years of being hated. The only way that is happening is by becoming unrecognizable, and that means this,” the scalpel tapped against his goggles, “has to go.”

My eyes slowly grew wider and wider, the realization of Sharpshot’s plan hitting me like a bag of bricks to the back of the head.

“You're going to perform surgery on yourself,” I muttered. That was why he had the healing potion; he would need it to reform his skin after cutting the goggles free. “Is… is that really safe?”

“I mean, it certainly isn’t something recommended,” he said, “but I’m not about to trust you with this, or anypony else. I’m going to have to be the one to do it, but I need you to promise me something.”

He pointed towards the aforementioned healing potion. The lack of any shaking or fear in his body showed either a bravery or idiocy that any standard pony wouldn’t be capable of.

“If, after I get it off, I’m in too much pain to heal myself, I need you to feed me that potion.”

My jaw fell slightly, looking towards the potion in shock and terror at exactly what he was asking me. It wasn’t that I wasn’t capable of it – I had seen more than enough blood in my lifetimes – but the knowledge of what Sharpshot was about to do to himself. He was putting his life possibly in my hooves. There was no way in Tartarus that he had that much trust in me.

Though, perhaps it wasn’t trust that led him to ask for my help. Maybe, given all the burned bridges and lack of real connection outside of Willow and myself, he had no other choice. Willow was gone, alive in body but dead in presence. Gemini was around but she was already asleep, not to mention the question of if she was mentally strong enough to do it.

That left… me.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked, just to make sure he had really thought this over.

Sharpshot nodded. “You don’t have to agree to this. I understand that I might be asking too much of anypony, given exactly what I have planned.”

“No. I mean, yes it certainly isn’t something I ever thought I’d be asked but,” I looked away, briefly questioning what I was going to respond with before giving my final answer, “I’ll do it. Last thing I’d want is to lose you on the same day we lost Willow.”

Instead of responding, Sharpshot looked through me. There was a brief moment where his pupils seemed to grow wider, as if preparing to get lost in thought, before returning to normal. He tried to grind his teeth together, but he didn’t have the energy or will for that.

In hindsight, I really should have known that he was still internalizing the day’s events.

“Feel free to wait outside the bathroom,” he said, even more emotion having faded from his voice. “This isn’t going to look pretty.”

As quickly and quietly as possible, I did as he asked. Walking back around him, I walked out of the bathroom and closed the door behind me. The plan was to sit down, maybe take a look through my MentaBuck at where Shorelock was, or do whatever else I could think of to push my memories of Willow’s goodbye to the back of mind.

Instead, as soon as the door was closed behind me, the barrel of a pistol was pressed up against the top of my neck. I tried to look at the pony responsible, move my head just enough to not make them pull the trigger. Instead they shoved the deadly piece of metal into my neck. The only knowledge I gained about them came from the glow of horn light, and the shroud of magic it placed on the door. Their body, their weapon, everything but the knowledge they were a unicorn was completely unknown.

Then, as if I hadn’t already dealt with enough, three gunshots filled the silence. The first was followed up by an all too familiar scream, and then two more in quick succession. The scream, just like the shots, had come from Gemmy and I’s room. My eyes went wide, every organ in my chest and stomach tightening, and if it wasn’t for the gun ready to kill me I’m certain a gasp of pain would have left my mouth.

“No. They didn’t… they didn’t!”

“Good, that makes two of you dealt with,” my assailant muttered. The end of the gun’s barrel pressed even further into my neck, just enough to make airflow the tiniest bit more difficult. “Farewell Miss Rhapsody.”

Fear, shock, and pain were all quickly turning into rage as my brain realized what they had done. The flare up from Rhapsody’s name was all but drowned as I tried to look at the pony holding me at gunpoint, that feral instinct that had shown up before the Goddess returned with a vengeance. As I did, they put pressure on the trigger, intending to fire.

Only to find their magic aura suddenly overridden by one of vibrant blue, and then fired right back at them. The shot missed them by a hair, maybe even grazing their cheek, but I didn’t care; my vision was red, and that violent piece of my mind had woken back up.

Without a single thought as to who fired the gun at my assailant in the first place, I turned and lunged at them. It was blind, but it didn’t matter; they were still trying to register the fact that their own gun had just been taken from them with minimal effort. My blow was more than enough to knock them onto their back, their head hitting the carpet with the force of a sledgehammer. The yelp of pain they emitted was music to my ears, but it wasn’t enough.

“Murderer!” I growled out as I stood over them. Without a second thought, both forehooves immediately came down on their neck as hard as possible. “Murderer!”

The pony’s face was stuck trying to grasp for air, forehooves flailing and failing to remove my own from their neck. Their hindlegs kicked at me simultaneously, but no matter how hard they kicked I didn’t care. I applied more pressure to their neck, watching as they uselessly struggled underneath me. As far as I know, they had killed Gemini. Strangulation was a merciful death compared to some of the ideas floating around in my mind.

I didn’t think about how long I stood there, watching as my assailant slowly lost life and will. Their kicks no longer hit my stomach with much, if any, force; their forelegs were resting on my own more than they were actively trying to remove them. Their head laid against the floor lazily, gasping for the air I blocked them from. It gave my justification, telling me to keep on going, keeping on choking them, keep on–

“Mom!”

Gemini’s voice cut through my murderous haze like a dagger, and in a moment of clarity I accidentally lifted my hooves off my target. They didn’t try to attack me, they didn’t have the want or ability to do that when they were greedily inhaling as much air as possible. That gave me more than enough time to see if the shout I had heard was real, or if my mind was playing tricks on me.

It didn’t take much time at all to find out, with Gemmy wrapping her hooves around my neck. She was tugging backwards, trying to pull me off the mare (I was now sane enough to tell that much about my assailant) that I had been trying to kill. Breathing hard myself due to the anger that consumed me, I allowed her to pull me away. Her head flicked up, looking me dead in the eyes.

“Mom?” She called out quietly. “A-Are you okay?”

Instead of a more straightforward answer, my brain tunnel visioned on the most obvious thing. With the biggest smile my face could manage, I held her cheeks in my hooves and wept. That alone was enough to cause a decent chunk of fear to disappear from her eyes.

“You’re okay,” I whispered. “I thought… I-I thought they killed you.”

“She almost did, sugar, but the Messenger is not one to let such injustices fly,” called a similarly familiar voice. Into the motel room stepped Amaryllis, undisguised, half a dozen numbers with her. The latter immediately went to my assailant and started to tie her up, but the former only had eyes for me. “Maybe now you see that she is lovely and merciful? Such a miracle can only be provided by a god, or one chosen to lead her followers.”

“What are you…,” the question died on my lips, taking one more look at Gemini next to me. Why the changeling was out and about didn’t matter, not when they had just saved my daughter’s life. “Thanks, Amaryllis.”

“If you want to thank me, we can talk about more… satisfying methods later,” they said, licking their lips. Their mandibles did what could be best described as a happy dance, an excited chirp sounding out in the process. “That said, I do believe there is one more pony we should check on, unless he isn’t around right now.”

With my mind still cooling down after the fit of rage I had gone through, it took me a moment to realize exactly who Amaryllis was referring to. The second it hit me I gasped, immediately getting back onto my hooves and turning around. Running back to the bathroom door, I opened the door and…

…

…

I’m… not sure I should describe exactly how Sharpshot looked when I came inside. He was alive, somehow managing to sit up despite the immense amount of pain visible in his eyes, but the amount of blood on his head – not to mention the fact I could see his skull – says everything about pink mist that needs to be said. His goggles laid on the floor, showing how the material and his skin had become one and the same. Blood stained it too. There was enough to give the impression that somepony had just died here.

My head felt fuzzy after only a few seconds of looking at that much blood, so I had to work fast. Lighting up my horn, I grabbed the healing potion and made my way to the ghoul. Doing my best not to look in the area of his eyes, one of my hooves lifted up his chin. As soon as it was high enough, the potion was taken off the sink’s basin and brought to his lips. He attempted to reach up with his hooves to grab it and drink it himself, but pain was overriding control of his body.

“Just… let me,” I whispered. I’m not entirely sure if he was conscious enough to hear me.

He practically choked on it. Gargling and convulsing as the liquid overflowed down his chin. A pony praying to save himself from dehydration by drowning instead. When he had all of it, the now empty bottle was placed back onto the sink basin. By that point I could barely see, light headed and sweating horribly from the sight of the blood still dripping from his body. I had no choice but to lay down, head resting on his hindlegs, leaving me unable to watch as the potion started to repair his skin.

In time, Sharpshot’s head was healed and the pain faded. By that point his body was beyond exhausted, and his upper body collapsed on top of me. The two of us sat there for a time, oblivious to the world for similar reasons. Barely able to see, nearly unable to hear, body numb, all I had was the smell of an old bathroom and freshly spilled blood to go off of. I was aware enough to notice when a shadow covered Sharpshot and myself, the latter getting lifted off by Amaryllis while Gemini and one of her illusions lifted me back into a sitting position.

It took a bit after that for my vision to come back, but when I did the first thing to catch my eyes was Gemmy. Two of her to be specific.

“Sorry about that,” I said. It was near impossible to tell which one was the real Gemmy, at least until she cut her illusion spell.

“What happened to him?” she asked, looking out of the bathroom. We could both hear Amaryllis place Sharpshot on his bed. “The mare you were hurting, did she hurt him?”

“No. Did that to himself,” I answered. I shuffled back until my back was against the wall, using it to keep myself up. “Wanted to get rid of his goggles. Should have told him it was a bad idea.”

Gemmy tilted her way in that same way she always did when confused. “Why is there so much blood then? Goggles are clothing, like the stuff the Shattered Moon wear. He should be able to take it off just fine.”

Despite knowing that it was a really bad idea, I shook my head gently. That was enough for my vision to blur once again, my head falling forward. Sharpshot’s self-butchering had really done a number on myself.

“Bit more complicated in his case,” I explained, trying to motion towards where I believed his goggles were with a foreleg. Lifting it off the ground nearly made me slump onto the ground, Gemmy barely able to hold me up and place me back against the wall. “There is this thing to the east called pink mist. It has the ability to fuse ponies to anything they are touching. Was one of the spells the zebrican empire launched on the Last Day. His goggles were basically part of his skin.”

“Part of his…,” Gemmy said, a look of pure fear taking over her face. She shivered, stumbling as her brain put together the implications of what that meant. “He didn’t. You can’t mean he–”

“Surgically removed a piece of his face? Yep,” I answered. “Gemmy, what happened in our room? I heard gunshots, and you screaming, and I thought that you… I thought you died.”

“I almost did,” she replied, another shiver rippling through her body from her hindlegs up to her muzzle. “Somepony unlocked the door not too long after you left. I thought it was you at first, but they were built more like… like….”

Gemmy subconsciously leaned into me, eyes wide and full of tears, horn pressing against the base of my neck. One of her forehooves went around my back, and I wrapped one around her too. My concern for my daughter over-rode the lightheadedness I had been dealing with before as she continued to talk.

“I-I-It wasn’t him, b-b-but he l-looked like him, a-a-a-and he had a gun and I was so scared that I h-h-h-hid and–”

“Gemmy, Gemmy, look at me,” I said, patting her back gently. She did as I asked, a tear-stained face looking up at me, breathing wildly. “It’s okay, you’re okay. I’m here, and you’re safe.”

“H-h-he wanted to kill me, mom,” she replied, her words constantly interrupted by hiccups and a sharp breath. “I don’t understand. Why did he want to kill me?”

“I’m not sure, but it wasn’t just you they wanted dead,” I explained, caressing her back with a wing. “They want Sharpshot and myself gone as well. We’re alright though. We are still here. What matters right now is that we are safe.”

“Not for too long, I’d imagine.”

Amaryllis’ comment couldn’t have come at a worst time for me emotionally. My eyes looked at the changeling, standing in the bathroom doorway. With everything I had gone through in the past few hours, my patience and control was a hair away from fully snapping. I snarled at them, giving a warning to watch what they were about to say.

“From what the heretics explained to me, your would-be killers were neither seen at the gates or registered at Underside’s town hall. Similar to myself, one might say, except these two are very clearly not Her believers or another changeling,” Amaryllis explained. “They were hired to kill you, however, that much is clear. Now tell me, sugar, have you perhaps pissed off a fellow heretic recently? One with the caps and reason to kill one of my bodyguards?”

It didn’t take after that to put two and two together. There was somepony who met both of those requirements. A pony that, up until recently, I had been unwillingly working for.

“Moondancer,” I muttered. Gemmy’s pupils shrunk to the size of needles at the name. It was all she needed to figure out exactly what I had. “Gold didn’t clean up loose ends, so she sent those two to fix that.”

“Ooh, I’m sensing some history here,” Amaryllis responded. I shot her another glare, and she instantly shifted from intrigue back towards mock concern. “If this Moondancer is that desperate to kill you, then these two won’t be the last. If she knows you are in Underside, which she clearly does, then I’d hardly call any of you safe.”

The urge to yell back at Amaryllis was there, and it was extremely tempting with how close I was to snapping again, but I held back. They were right, and sweet Celestia did I hate that fact. Underside wasn’t safe anymore, not just for Sharpshot or myself, but for Gemmy as well. The plan to have her stay here was up in smoke, not just her freedom but her life threatened by forces completely out of her control.

The snarl on my face stayed, but it lost a lot of its intended effect the more I thought of Gemini. She was still crying into me, her breathing a hair steadier but that was it. What was I supposed to do? Telling Gemmy of how I saw her, letting her call me mom, suddenly it felt like the biggest mistake of my life. How was I supposed to be her mom if I couldn’t protect her.

How?

…

“I’m always willing to hire two more,” Amaryllis said, their words dragging me out of despair just enough to look at them again. Any anger at the changeling was gone, my desire to keep Gemmy safe overwhelming how much I hated them. “A medical specialist and an apprentice mercenary, specifically your apprentice, could be useful. I’ve already mentioned my lack of ability to be picky, after all, considering my circumstances.”

Just like that, all my fears had been given an answer. Amaryllis didn’t dare to hide the sly nature of their grin, making it clear that this wasn’t just an act of kindness. They had something to gain out of this, something more than just my thanks and a sliver of trust. It should have scared me, especially knowing she was an Equalist, and yet…

“We don’t have a choice, do we?”

We didn’t. Sharpshot had options on where he could go, but Gemini? She didn’t know anything existed outside of Trotson until she met us. Leaving her on her own, out in the middle of San Palomino, was basically a death sentence. That meant the only option I had was the one Amaryllis was giving me right now.

“Gemmy?” I asked. The young mare removed her head from my chest once again, looking at me. “Do you… want to come to Our Haven with me?”

Her brow rose at the question, probably so lost in her own tears that she hadn’t heard Amaryllis’ proposal. Didn’t stop her from nodding her head rapidly before leaning back into me. Her crying, as well as her breathing, slowed down greatly. She was still upset, fear visible in the corner of her lips, but no longer was she concerned about the stallion that had barged into our room when I wasn’t around.

“Come on, let's get up,” I said, patting her a few more times on the back. Gemmy moved off of me, allowing me to stand up. My legs still felt a bit heavy, but it was easy to put off as I walked up right in front of Amaryllis. “I’m assuming you have some place safer for us to stay.”

“Oh sugar, you understand me so well,” they replied, their grin taking on a more seductive tone. She earned an unamused look as their reply, leading them to roll their eyes. “I can quite easily get you three a room much like my own back in that old police station.”

“H-h-how?” Gemmy asked the changeling. She did her best to look annoyed at Amaryllis’ presence, though the scrunched muzzle tear-stained face made it cuter than she intended. “What are you doing here anyways? I thought you’d be in a jail cell or something.”

The changeling chirped in amusement, bending down so that they were eye level with the unicorn. “Any other changeling would be, but when the Messenger gives you a body like mine she expects you to use it. You heretics are incredibly easy to convince when something calls to your… base urges.”

Gemmy backed up, gritting her teeth in discomfort at Amaryllis’ implications. Taking that as a sign to step in, I walked in between the two of them and shoved the changeling back with a hoof. They did back up, though there was no change in their expression or even a fake apology.

“If you want to ask the mare any questions before the Shattered Moon takes her away, I’d do so now,” they said, tilting their head towards the door leading outside. “Might be your only chance.”

I did just that.

Just like when I confronted the Goddess, a small crowd of onlookers had gathered around the outskirts of the motel, no doubt drawn by the sound of gunshots. The Shattered Moon held them back, Amaryllis taking on that same stallion disguise they had when we first met to keep them relatively unknown. The fact none of the onlookers immediately recognized them meant that this wasn’t the form they had worn when Gemmy initially found them. While it led to questions of what disguise they were wearing, it wasn’t really important.

Especially since, jailed or not, Amaryllis had become a problem in a very different way for Underside. Their sudden ability to order this town’s protectors around like they were Equalist soldiers would make her a threat and enemy under almost any other circumstance. Unfortunately, they were also my employer, and my ticket to Our Haven.

The unicorn that had attempted to kill me was bound up, some form of ring on their horn. I didn’t know the specifics on the ring, just that she was simply wiggling useless instead of undoing the rope binding her with magic. Must have been enchanted in some way, not unlike Sharpshot’s Flash Fire or the mine entrance back in Nowhere, just without the gemstone signifying a talisman carved into it. She had no hope of going anywhere, but one guard was still watching her just in case.

“Three!” Amaryllis called out. Day Glow turned to the changeling, the briefest sign of a double take on his face as looked in my direction for a split second. “The three of us have her. Join the others in keeping the civilians away.”

“Y-yes ma’am!” Day Glow said, saluting at them.

They flinched slightly, regret and disgust visible in his eyes at what Amaryllis had forced him to do in front of me. He trotted away, the captive mare ‘lunging’ at him in a pathetic attempt at… something. I’m not sure if she was trying to attack, or squirm away, but it didn’t really matter. The lunge was more of a flop, face colliding with the ground muzzle first and causing both Gemmy and myself to wince.

“Fucking- come on. Get off, get off!” she said, her forelegs wiggling in a desperate attempt at getting the ropes off of them. She was checking literally everywhere except where we stood with her eyes, as if expecting to somehow get away. Then, she looked at me, and her body froze in its place instantly. “N-no.”

“Good evening, little criminal,” Amaryllis said, choosing to lie down less than an inch from the unicorn’s face. If she wasn’t already afraid from seeing me, her yelp when she noticed how close the changeling was fixed that. “I hope you don’t mind if we ask you some questions concerning tonight's events.”

The mare swallowed and said nothing, staring terrified into Amaryllis’ eyes. She tried her best to puff her chest out in an attempt to seem strong, but it was so clearly a facade that neither Armaryllis or myself were fooled by it. Gemmy was scared herself, leaning against me for safety, not trusting any of the measures taken to restrict my assailant. Not that the mare noticed, with her focus specifically on the changeling and myself.

“J-Just do it,” they said, the shake in their voice betraying their own words. “Kill me if you want, I-I won’t tell you anything!”

“Oh really now? What a brave, loyal little thing you are,” Amaryllis said, caressing the mare’s cheek slowly. Though they were clearly trying to sound seductive, it proved to only make the mare’s fragile mask crack, their lower jaw quaking in terror. “Now, how about we start with a name. Surely you’d rather tell us that then suffocate again, right?”

Amaryllis looked to me with a sinister smile, setting up our dynamic for this interrogation. I motioned Gemmy to back up – which she did immediately – and then placed one of my hoofs on my assailant’s chest. Her eyes went wide, trying to block my hoof with her bound legs to minimal effect. It was too easy to slide it onto her neck, making it look as if she had done it to herself in her attempts to shake me off.

“So that is your choice? Such a selfless little heretic you are,” Amaryllis told the mare mockingly. Getting up, he stretched and started slowly walking away. “Well, go on then Danse. Put her out of her misery… slowly.”

I nodded at the changeling, immediately starting to apply pressure to her throat. It only took a second after that for them to crack.

“Ink Spot! My name is Ink Spot!”

Amaryllis stopped midstep, and started walking backwards to us. The smugness in their face grew vividly, not caring to hide the joy they took in breaking the bound mare down. They dragged their own hoof against the one I had on Ink Spot’s neck, silently telling me to let go. When I went to completely take it off her neck, however, she instantly nudged it back into place.

The changeling had made their plan clear. Despite Ink Spot’s earlier remark, she had no plans or desire to actually die here. If all it had taken was the slightest threat of ending her life to get her name, then all we needed to get her to cooperate was play the same card until all our questions were answered. If she didn’t…

I’m not sure Amaryllis wanted to kill her, but I was more than willing to after what Ink Spot and her dead collaborator tried.

“The pony that was working with you, his name?” I asked.

“Wh-why do you want to know th–” I cut off her question with another small press. “Pure Jade.”

“Okay, now why were you two trying to kill me and my daughter?”

“Your… daughter?!” Ink Spot’s eyes went wide. “I wasn’t told that. They said that I was killing thieves.”

“They?” Amaryllis whispered into the bound unicorn’s ear. “Mind letting us in on exactly who ‘they’ is in this circumstance?”

“I can’t! Sh-she’d kill me if I tell you.”

“And we’ll kill you if you don’t. Wouldn’t you rather have time to tie up loose ends, plead forgiveness to your princesses, and enjoy some final freedoms, then die here?”

Ink Spot’s pupils kept darting between Amaryllis and myself, her paranoid brain trying to make a decision. Eyes watering, teeth gritted she battled herself for the option she felt was right. When she closed her eyes, doing everything in her power to get her breath under control, I knew she had made her decision.

“Sh-Shadow Corp. I don’t know their names, but they claimed to lead it,” she said. “Never saw their faces, since they were using sprite-bots to talk to us. Didn’t know anything existed outside of Trotson until then and, well, they said that if we did this job we never had to go back.”

Amaryllis looked at me with a raised brow, hoping for some form of explanation. I ignored them, instead looking behind me towards Gemmy. My daughter, taking it as a hint that I needed her help, walked back up to us.

“I need you to wake up Sharpshot,” I said.

“No need, already awake.”

Both of us immediately looked back towards the still-open door to the ghoul’s motel room. There he was, leaning against the door frame, PipBuck back on his foreleg, clearly still out of it from all the blood he had lost. Without even thinking of asking for help, he tried to take a step forward and immediately collapsed on the ground. Gemmy ran up to him without a second thought, casting an illusionary version of herself to help lift him up just like she had for me. Then, slowly, with my daughter doing most of the work, they made their way over to us.

“We need water!” Amaryllis shouted to her Shattered Moon.

A few of them immediately turned our direction, first looking to the changeling and then at Sharpshot. One tossed a flask to the other, and they sprinted over as quickly as possible. They reached us at the same time Gemmy and Sharpshot did, the former setting the later down. Her illusion stayed as a support for the ghoul as he clutched his head with one of his hooves.

“Been a long time since I’ve felt this bad,” Sharpshot muttered. The guard held out the flask to him, the ghoul practically ripping it out of their hooves. Bringing it to his lips, he eagerly gulped down each and every last drop of water that was in it before hoofing it back over to the guard. “Marginally less shit; I’ll probably keel over in a bit with how fuzzy everything is, so try and explain quickly.”

“Got a pony here from Trotson,” I explained. “You know what that means.”

The ghoul leered at me a second, before letting out an annoyed groan. “Fine just… give me a second.”

With him standing up and managing to keep his own balance, Gemmy’s illusion disappeared from his side. Sharpshot trotted practically on top of Ink Spot, the poor mare terrified as she looked at the ghoul. Must have been her first time seeing one. She tried to wiggle away from him, but all it took to stop her was just a small press on her neck.

“I was really hoping I’d only have to operate on myself tonight, but this is the wasteland we are talking about,” The ghoul said, lighting his horn. “Okay, keep your head completely still.”

“What are you doing?” Ink Spot asked.

Her mouth was clamped shut immediately after that with his magic. “Saving your life. Now please shut up, stay still, and let me do my work.”

He let go of her muzzle directly after that, Ink Spot getting the hint and deciding to remain completely still. He brightened up his PipBuck’s screen as high as possible and placed it on the right side of Ink Spot’s neck. The screen looked different from anything on my own MentaBuck, holding a bunch of medical shit that I didn’t understand. With that, his horn lit up again, and he stared into the mare below him.

About a minute later, Ink Spot made a sound similar to a dying radroach. She closed her eyes, grinding her teeth against each other in pain. Simultaneously, Sharpshot cut his magic and moved off of her and over to my side. Seems I was right, Ink Spot had one too.

“I think I’m a bit out of the loop here,” Amaryllis said, eyes darting between Ink Spot and myself. It was the most genuinely confused I had seen them, their typically controlled emotion state seeming to fray at everything that had just occurred. “What did you just do?”

“I think un-doing is a more accurate term,” Sharpshot said. Both Ink Spot and the changeling looked to him, the former still fighting with the migraine no doubt wreaking havoc on her eyes. “To summarize, a group of scientists who have lost all ethical reasoning planted shit in her head that, if activated, would allow their leader to take control of her body.”

“Wh-what?” Ink Spot muttered.

“It’s true. They did the same with Danse and I,” Gemmy said, sitting down with the rest of us. Her forelegs were pulled into her chest as she broached a topic that made bother her and myself extremely uncomfortable. “Sharpshot broke it, though, so that they can’t make us do anything out of our control… like forcing us to kill ourselves.”

Ink Spot’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, and for the first time since we met I got to see true, uncontrolled fear in Amaryllis’ own. While all the bound mare could do was think of the implications of what that all meant, Amaryllis brought a hoof to her head and started mumbling to herself. It was too quiet to catch all of it, but I heard what sounded like the words ‘monsters’ ‘threat’ and something concerning a place called Paradise.

My MentaBuck picked up on the location immediately, and upon checking with the map, showed me exactly where. It was on the outskirts of what had once been Las Pegasus, in a mountain valley west of Our Haven. It looked like nothing special in the MentaBuck’s HuD. If only I had known what it actually was.

“The only reason Moondancer, the leader of ‘Shadow Corps’, hasn’t done it to you is because you’re not exactly capable of it right now,” I told Ink Spot. “The Shattered Moon putting that ring on your horn might have saved your life. If you had succeeded in killing us, it’s more than likely she would have killed you immediately after, just to tie up loose ends.”

I didn’t have complete confidence in my words. Moondancer would do what I said but because I had no way of validating if it was true. She had shown no mercy when it came to Bone Breaker’s death, and was more than willing to leave both Willow Wisp and myself to die in those underground labs. Why wouldn’t she throw some random pony from her city into the world with the full intent on killing them when their use was up?

Given the truth my words were based on, all I needed was for Ink Spot to believe that we had just saved her life. She would be willing to divulge everything to us, and I’d no longer need to crush her throat.

“You seem… almost upset at the idea of her thanking us.”

“Shut it,” I mumbled. The mare and her friend had still tried to kill us, and I was more than okay with her choosing the wrong option so I could silence her eternally.

Unfortunately for myself, she chose the smart option.

Ink Spot, while still battling with the migraine caused by Sharpshot destroying the device ArcanaTech had put in her brain, was staring at me horrified. She was mumbling to herself, thinking through everything we had just explained with terrifying realization. There must have been other signs as well, ones she had noticed while Jade and herself had made their way to us. The longer it went, the more downtrodden Ink Spot looked, until finally…

“It was… all a lie,” she said to herself. She rested her head on the ground, staring at it in a disinterested manner. “Jade died for a lie.”

I gave her a little bit of time to mourn, more than felt she deserved. Amaryllis looked at me, seeming to be as disappointed as I was that things had taken on a more sorrowful tone. I motioned for them to wait, because with them now regretting their actions, pulling information out would be several times easier.

To my surprise, I was not the one to do it. Gemmy trotted up to Ink Spot during that moment of silence and laid down right in front of the mare. That grabbed Ink Spot’s attention immediately, grief-stricken eyes looking at my daughter’s own, probably prepared for some form of retaliation. It never came.

“My mom told me that I should give respect even to those I hate, so that I don’t become them,” she told Ink Spot. Her fellow unicorn winced, closing her eyes and trying to tuck her muzzle into her neck. “I don’t think I need to say it but… I hate you. You tried to kill my mom, and Mister Sharpshot, and when your friend went to kill me I got reminded of some really awful things. I have no reason to respect you for what you’ve done…”

I got up, about ready to pull Gemmy away in fear that her own emotions might have been getting the better of her.

“But I’m going to, because mom would want me to,” she continued on, stopping me in the middle of my first step towards her. Ink Spot opened her eyes, looking at my daughter stunned. “Somepony used you, and I know what that is like. For most of my life I was surrounded by ponies who hurt me in awful, awful ways, and I didn’t know how awful they really were until I met my mom. Moondancer may not have hurt you in the same exact way, but you were hurt just like me. For that reason, I forgive you.”

Ink Spot looked up at Gemmy, staring in the same stupefied manner that I was. Gemini’s past was something she had only really talked about with myself and maybe Willow Wisp, the trauma keeping her mouth and mind shut from the events whenever it wasn’t directly called up. So for her to address it with not just Sharpshot, but two complete strangers in our presence was shocking. Even if she didn’t go into any form of detail outside of what happened to her being bad, that was quite the next step.

Then came her mention of respect, something that made a well of guilt build up in my chest. On the one hoof, it felt good to see her put into practice what Rhapsody and Gold had taught her on that first visit to the Lucky Clover. On the other hoof, this truly didn’t seem like the time to be encouraging the mare Amaryllis and I were interrogating. The last thing Ink Spot needed was to feel better and less responsible for their own actions, because it possibly meant that they would be more willing to take their information to the grave than before.

“Can we blame her for doing as she was told?” My inner selves asked. “She isn’t like us; she’s just a young mare figuring out how the world really works.”

They were right, of course. I’d have to find a way to tell Gemmy about exceptions and timing later. For the sake of her mental health, it was best to let her put what I asked into practice.

A decision made all the better by the fact that her words to Ink Spot did not have the negative effect I thought it would. My assailant looked to Amaryllis, and then to me. The guilt on her face was several times greater than my own. Ears flat, still a little but uncertain, she opened her mouth to speak.

“As I said, I didn’t learn their names, but they told me you ponies had stolen some things that could be dangerous to everypony’s lives. Jade and I didn’t want our lives to be in anymore danger than they already were, so we agreed,” she explained. “One of them sounded young, a teenage filly around the same age as him,” she tilted her head towards Sharpshot, “and the other was a decent bit older. It felt like the older pony was guiding the filly’s words in some way, though I thought originally that she was just helping them.”

“That sounds like Moondancer and Lucky Heart alright. Poor filly is being used like a doll by her ‘assistant’.”

“They wanted us to kill four creatures. Two unicorns, a pegasus, and a griffon,” Ink Spot said. “Something about you all stealing blueprints and research that could help Trotson grow food on its own.”

My eyes went wide at the mention of a griffon, head turning to Sharpshot to make sure I wasn’t the only pony who had heard it. He seemed on the verge of falling back asleep, though had enough energy to look back at me, the faintest sign of confusion and surprise in his eyes. The amount of questions that formed from that one statement alone was enough to take my thoughts off this supposed theft I had taken part in.

“You said they wanted you to kill a griffon?” I asked, receiving a nod from the bound unicorn as confirmation. “Did they tell you what they looked like?”

“They told us what all of you looked like,” Ink Spot said. “If I remember correctly, the filly said the griffon was on the older side, had a lot of scars, and spoke weird.”

“That’s Gold!” Gemmy shouted.

“Why the fuck do they want him dead?” Sharpshot asked. “Fucker tried to kill the three of us. Don’t know why they would kill one of their own.”

“It didn’t sound like it,” Ink Spot said. “They lumped him in with the rest of you. Perhaps some sort of falling out happened? It doesn’t seem like he killed any of you.”

“I guess that depends,” Amaryllis said. “This Moondancer individual, you’ve already made it clear she is a danger to both heretics and believers alike. Would she be the kind to throw her own to the wolves?”

“With what little we know of her, yes” I replied. “The moment somepony proves to be even the slightest sign of a problem, they are discarded in one way or another.”

“Then it is quite likely that this griffon is yet another poor, unfortunate victim of this cruel mare,” Amaryllis waxed, putting a hoof over their heart in an attempt to appear more caring than they really were. I gave the changeling a harsh glare, the corners of their mouth falling slightly in disappointment at my reaction. “It was not me he tried to kill, sugar. Also, while I certainly don’t approve of his attempted murder, he seems to be but another victim of this Shadow Corp you all know.”

“It still doesn’t make any sense though!” Gemmy exclaimed. “Gold talked like he was really close with Lucky Heart, similar to Danse and I actually. For her to order his death makes no sense!”

“Unless Moondancer is twisting the filly to think like her,” Sharpshot said, sitting back up. One of his hooves rubbed at his eyes, yawning from physical and mental exhaustion; it had been a longer night for him than any of us. “Take it from someone who has worked with her in the past. Whatever goal ArcanaTech and herself push towards, it’s selfish and ill-willed.”

“Yet still you worked with them,” I said.

The ghoul shrugged. “My mindset wasn’t what it is now. I didn’t give enough shit back then to really care unless it hurt….”

He couldn’t say it, the mere attempt at saying her name causing his entire face to take on a more depressed expression. He half-heartedly tried to make a show of anger, tensing his forelegs and grinding his teeth, but it was as fake as a desert mirage. The reality of the day’s events had started to set in, his forelegs sliding forward until his chest and stomach hit the ground with a barely audible thump.

“Is there anything else you all want to know?” Ink Spot said, looking between each of us with desperation and worry. “I’m not sure how much more I can help, but if it is possible–”

“You have done more than enough, little sinner,” Amaryllis told the mare. Standing up, they stepped away from Ink Spot and around Gemini. “Ninety-Seven, One Thirty-One, bring this pony to a cell! The rest of you, disperse this crowd!”

“Wh-what?!” Ink Spot shouted, watching the changeling with horror. “Why are you locking me up? I answered all of your questions, didn’t I?”

“That is true, but you did still try and kill somepony,” Amaryllis said. They looked at the underside of their disguised hoof, inspecting it curiously as the two guards she requested came up to us. “Failure to commit a crime can be a crime itself, in case you didn’t know; most of you poor, lost souls forget that part. Besides, it sounds to me like a cell is the safest place for you, given said failure.”

“But… but I–”

Whatever Ink Spot was going to say was interrupted by the guards forcing her onto her hooves. Her attempts to speak were robbed similarly by binding her mouth using rob, and they blindfolded her eyes just like they would whenever I had entered their base. She struggled through all of it, her self-made belief that her cooperation meant freedom denied by reality as she moved away from us to wherever she would be kept.

All the while, just as Amaryllis had ordered, the rest of the present Shattered Moon worked to disperse the crowd of onlookers. It was slow, some creatures less cooperative than others, but in time the attention died down and most everyone went home. Those who didn’t have to be forcibly removed themselves or had been subtle enough watching us that the guards paid them no mind. I should have been happy to have the crowd gone, and yet…

I looked to the pony who had given the order, or more exactly the changeling. In less than a week of being found out, they had gone from locked up in a cell to ordering around those who were watching their cell. They had compromised this entire town, knowing the faces of several members of Shattered Moon and making them subservient enough where I had to ask myself: if the Equalists ever came here, how quick would Underside fall?

Not that Amaryllis themselves seemed to care.

“Three!” the changeling called out, grabbing Day Glow’s attention after the crowd had fully dispersed. “These three need rooms on base until tomorrow. Please be a dear and see that they are made comfortable.”

Rhapsody’s old squadmate gave a hesitant salute to Amaryllis, the changeling turning around and giving a bow to Gemmy, Sharpshot and myself.

“Well, I think we can agree that tonight has been exciting enough,” they said. “I’ll see you three tomorrow for breakfast so I can explain everything to my two new bodyguards.”

“I’m pretty damn sure you never hired me,” Sharpshot replied as Amaryllis rose from their bow. There was the tiniest sign of hate in the ghoul’s eyes, though the target of it seemed completely unaffected.

“Well you were busy bleeding out throughout this entire affair, so I’m not surprised,” Amaryllis told him in a cheery, almost self-congratulatory tone. “To summarize, you have been recruited to overthrow a false prophet. I’ll explain more thoroughly in the morning. In the meantime, sleep well.”

They trotted off after that, Day Glow watching the changeling cautiously the entire time. The two passed each other as the one-winged pegasus made their way to us, purposefully stepping to the side as he did. The moment Day Glow was behind Amaryllis, he slowed down from a job to a slower pace trot, taking a glance behind him to make sure he wasn’t being watched. Once he was certain they were far enough away, their head slumped forward in relief.

“I think it is around now that I am told what…,” Sharpshot was cut off as another yawn erupted from his muzzle, “exactly happened. You took quite a bit of time getting me that potion.”

“You were conscious enough to figure out that much?” I asked.

He shook both his head and a hoof at the same exact time. “Not in the moment. When I got my goggles off I was barely able to sit down. Didn’t really think of how long that was until I woke back up.”

“And of course, he wakes up far quicker than we do. Fucking wonderful.”

“If you want the general overview, we got word over the radio of a unicorn and earth pony teleporting through the town gate when asked to hoof over their weapons,” Day Glow said. All attention was now on him, the stallion looking between all of us before waving a hoof. “Nice to see you all again, by the way. Sorry it isn’t under better circumstances.”

“Hello!” Gemmy replied happily. I joined her in giving the masked pegasus a wave.

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Sharpshot said, waving off Day Glow instead. He then tilted his head in the direction Ink Spot had been dragged off in. “Guessing that was the unicorn you mentioned. Where’s the earth pony?”

“Currently lying in a pool of his own blood from two holes in his chest,” Day Glow explained. “Amaryllis and Rhapsody subdued the other one. She seemed pretty shaken.”

“Well mom did almost kill her,” Gemmy stated in a matter-of-fact manner. “Only reason she’s alive is because I stopped it.”

The masked stallion gave an understanding nod, and then went wide eyed. He looked at me, my brain predicting the question before he had even opened his mouth.

“New development, but I think you can understand how three unknown shots in my motel room might cause me to act badly.”

“Y-yeah, I can imagine,” he said.

“Wait, back up,” Sharpshot said. “Did you say Amaryllis? As in, the same Amaryllis that–”

“That I revealed to everypony?” Gemmy said, interrupting the ghoul. “Yeah. They were the stallion ordering the Shattered Moon around earlier.”

His expression hardened, a spark of hate visible within his eyes. “What?!”

“They managed to get in my higher up’s good graces, something I’m sure she has already told Rha- Danse and Gemini,” Day Glow replied, her eyelids falling halfway. “A few honeyed words, some sexual promises, and they were out. Damn bug could have used it to escape, but instead started ordering us all around as if they were the boss instead. Got to walk around in base unblindfolded despite not actually being one of us which is… going to get good ponies killed.”

His head fell, ears following suit. It took me a moment to realize exactly what he was talking about, that the words were more than just hyperbole. With everything that had happened in my life, I had completely forgotten about just how strict the Shattered Moon was with anonymity. It had nearly gotten me killed when we reunited, yet by the way Day Glow is describing it now, Amaryllis wasn’t going to be the one killed for the failure of her officers. Officers that, in all likelihood, were the reason behind it.

“Fuck,” I muttered. “Three, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s… not okay, but I was prepared for it,” he replied, rubbing one of his forelegs as his remaining wing shifted uncomfortably. “Every single pony, griffon, hippogriff, and otherwise in Shattered Moon knows what we signed up for. The initiation is one of the few things the public actually knows about, so it’s impossible not to.”

Despite my body protesting the action, I swallowed a lump that had taken root in my throat and spoke. “Are you of the ponies who are–”

“No. I got told what happened pretty early on,” Day Glow replied. He briefly looked behind him to make sure no other Shattered Moon were around before turning back to us. “Don’t tell anyone that I said this but there is an execution planned. Nothing public, but a lot of us with lower authority figured it was the best way to save ourselves. The bug is serious about her plans, Danse, but I think you can tell from how they talk that calling them ‘trustworthy’ is like calling Harbinger a decent pegasus.”

“These are your ponies Three, not mine,” I told her. “Things work differently here than in the Enclave. If this has to be done, then I’ll trust you and yours to do the right thing.”

“Thanks… lieutenant,” he said. There was a hint of relief in his eyes, his body relaxed as he let his guard down. His words brought with it the usual pins and needles that occurred when somepony referred to me by Rhapsody, but it didn’t stop the feeling of pride I had for the stallion before me. “The bug told me to get you all a room, so let's get going before my fellow Shattered Moon gets suspicious about anything.”

Gemini and I nodded, but Sharpshot sheepishly looked back towards the motel. A second of conflict later, and he turned to Day Glow.

“You okay if I just… grab something real quick?” he asked. “It’s important.”

Day Glow nodded. “Just make it quick.”

With a lot less coordination than usual, Sharpshot darted back towards his motel room. As he came out of his, another pony came out of what had been my room. Earth pony, a brilliant emerald green coat, white mane and tail, looking lost and confused. He opened his muzzle to ask Sharpshot a question, but the ghoul trotted past them like they didn’t exist. If that wasn’t a clear enough indication of who he was, Gemini pressed herself up against me as soon as they appeared, shivering in fear.

“M-mom.”

“He isn’t going to hurt you Gemmy. Probably hasn’t grasped the fact he is dead yet,” I said. Something about saying that felt wrong, almost unreal; it was something I hadn’t ever expected to say.

Not wanting to think about it, I turned my attention to Sharpshot. He had made his way back to the rest of us, two items held in his magic. One was a photo from Arbu, the other was Willow's memory orb. There was a sense of longing in his eyes, the same face an elderly pony made when remembering their youth.

“Are you going to be okay?” I asked.

“Ye… yeah,” he lied. He levitated them over to me. “Do you mind putting these in your saddlebags? I don’t really have those right now.”

“Of course, Sharpshot,” I said, giving a sympathetic smile to the ghoul.

“Please, don’t call me that anymore,” he replied. “If I’m going to be starting over, I can’t go by that anymore. Open Heart will do.”

I blinked, staring in surprise at the statement. “You're sure?”

“Don’t really have a choice. The name Sharpshot is known throughout the entirety of Equestria. Open Heart? Not so much,” he explained. He stared at me, waiting for my word that I’d start using his birth name. I gave a stilted nod, and he then transferred the photo and orb from his telekinesis over to mine. “Don’t touch the orb to your horn by the way. I know it’s invisible, but I’d rather not take chances.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” I told him. Opening the saddlebag with the Twilight and Fluttershy statuettes in them, I placed both items carefully inside. Once it was closed, my attention turned to Day Glow. “Guess we’re ready.”

Day Glow nodded, and motioned us to follow. Gemini and Sharpshot were all too eager to get away from the motel after the night’s events, but I took one more look back. It wasn’t much, the place didn’t really belong to me, but the motel had been the closest thing to a home that I had since leaving the Enclave. Leaving it, knowing that I likely wouldn’t be back for months or more, hurt. If things were different, Underside was definitely a place I would have set roots down in.

Instead I was forced to leave, not just because of Rhapsody’s wanted revenge, but because of forces outside of my control. As if Gold being ordered to kill me wasn’t enough reason to hate Moondancer.

Before turning to join the rest, I gave one more look to the recently deceased Pure Jade. His ghost was staring at me, a look of terror on his face for some reason that I didn’t understand. For a brief moment, I considered giving him a few words of advice, only to realize none of them applied to him anymore. All that left me able to do was contemplate why he seemed so scared of me.

“Why is he staring at us like that?” my inner selves asked.

As I turned and made to catch up with the others, I gave Rhapsody and Dead Hooves a shrug. “Don’t know. Maybe he just figured out what happened to him.”

“I don’t think so,” they replied. “If it was just the stare I would agree, but that fear felt too… directed for it to simply be that.”

“So you're saying he is scared of us?” I asked. I received the mental version of a nod from both of them, looking behind me and back towards Jade’s ghost. “I mean, I don’t mind it considering what he tried to kill Gemmy, but why? We didn’t do anything to him.”

“I’m not sure,” they answered. “Perhaps they don’t entirely know themselves.”

A trip across Underside and one blindfolded trek through Shattered Moon’s base later, we arrived at our rooms. Gemini and I got our own, just like back at the motel, with Open Heart getting the one next to us. Like Amaryllis’ own room, this one wasn’t originally intended to be a bedroom but some office. Privacy glass made it impossible for us to see anycreature outside it, giving both the Shattered Moon and ourselves the privacy we needed. Not that either of us were interested in playing chicken with how exhausted both of us were.

With only one bed available, I ended up spending the night in the same bed as Gemmy. Falling asleep was impossible. I was tired enough where all I desired was to pass out, yet far too awake to actually do it. My brain would stop thinking about everything that had happened, the bad parts taking special attention in my exhausted state. It wasn’t too long until I came to a very clear yet unwanted conclusion.

This day was pure, unfiltered Tartarus.

I thought the events in Nowhere or nearly the day after were terrible, but in one fell swoop Luna had taken her moon and cracked my head open. Even that didn’t feel like a decent enough description of how horrible the day was. Amaryllis not only being free but taking charge of the entire base, the Goddess ruining our goodbye with Willow, and the rest of us nearly dying because of ArcanaTech, it was too much for just one day. Most ponies would have crumbled under it all.

I just laid there, staring off at the rest of the room.

Gemini, the poor dear, was handling it far worse than I was. Her head was resting on my neck, with her horn pressing lightly against my jaw. Her legs and stomach were similarly pressed against my back, the rise and fall of her chest just a little too fast to be considered normal. She was doing everything she could to seem fine, but I knew better. The only reason any of it was working was due to the fact that I could not see her face.

It took me longer than it should have to actually address my daughter’s own mood. I was still trying to put together everything that had happened, and figure out myself just how horrible I felt. It was impossible to keep my attention on her for long though. All it took was for me to feel the cold, wet, sensation of a tear on the front of my neck to realize that I wasn’t the one who needed counseling at that moment.

“Gemmy?” I called softly.

“I’m okay,” she replied, her choked up voice and another tear hitting my neck revealing her lie for what it was.

“Gemmy,” I said again, turning on my back to face her. My daughter shuffled away, allowing me to look at her tear-stained face as best as I could in the darkness. “It’s braver to show your emotions than hide them, especially when you are hurt.”

“I-it is?” she asked. I nodded, and she placed her head in my chest once more. “Sorry, mom.”

“It’s okay, though I’m surprised to see you of all ponies try and hide your feelings.”

“I know, but you’ve also dealt with so much today already. I didn’t think the timing was right.”

I couldn’t help but smile. While it wasn’t the correct choice of action, it was undeniably sweet. One of my hooves slowly glided through her mane to calm her down and make her feel more at ease.

“I’m your mother now, Gemini, and that makes us family,” I told her. “A family listens to each other's troubles. So please tell me what’s wrong.”

Gemini remained silent for a bit, and then pressed further into me.

“H-his face. I can’t get it out of my mind,” she said. “I feel like I did back in Trotson, being forced to serve all those bad ponies. I feel so weak.”

I frowned, wrapping one wing around my daughter in comfort. Of course that was bothering her, it made too much sense. Years of sexual abuse isn’t something anycreature could recover from in the blink of an eye. It was amazing how well Gemini had been holding together over the course of the past two weeks. Now, as her mother, I had to lay there and comfort her while asking myself: how long has she been holding the pain in?

“Gemini, I’m so sorry,” I whispered. What other words could I say at that moment?

“I felt so safe out here until today,” she said. “Being around you and Willow and Sharpshot and Gold made me feel like I could breathe for the first time in my life. Even when you all were away I felt okay because Gigi, Gideon, and Bastion were around. Now… now things don’t feel safe anymore.”

“You’ve gone through something that nopony ever wants to go through in their life,” I told her. “It’s completely okay for you to be afraid of it. Just know that, as long as we are around, nopony will ever do that to you again.”

“But what if you aren’t around anymore?!” she asked. “Willow is gone, and Gold nearly tried to kill you. What if I wake up tomorrow and you aren’t there anymore? What if I wake up tomorrow and I’m back in Trotson?”

“That’s not going to happen!” I said, voice far harsher than I intended it to be. Gemini looked back up at me, the white of her eyes strained red from the amount of tears she had shed. “Gemini, I made a promise to you today. It doesn’t matter that you are now coming with me, I swear that I am not going to die.”

I had hoped that would be the thing to calm her down, maybe even get a smile on her face. Instead, she once more lowered her head and pressed her body against mine. For a second I was worried that my words had no effect on her, but then she spoke up.

“Mom, can I be honest?”

“Of course sweetie. Go ahead.”

“I think I made a mistake, revealing Amaryllis.”

My eyes went wide, my brow rose, and I swore my heart stopped for a moment. Somehow, it hadn’t hit me that what Day Glow had said earlier would affect her.

“It’s not your fault, Gemmy,” I said.

“H-huh?”

“Everything that happened with Amaryllis, it’s not your fault. None of us what they were capable of. You did a good thing,” I explained. I felt her head shift, her muzzle no longer pressing into the base of my neck but instead leaning against it, all so she could look at me. “Amaryllis is the one to blame for everything that happened afterwards. The creatures who are going to die, it is their fault, not yours.”

She shifted around a bit, shuffling away enough so that she could once more look at me without my muzzle blocking view of my eyes. “Do we really have to work with them?”

“You and Hearty don’t, but I already signed up to take her back to Our Haven,” I answered. “If you want off after Shorelock, I’ll figure out things so that you can stay there while we are away. I need to go with her though, not Amaryllis, not just for Rhapsody, but because they genuinely do want something good, even if they aren’t good themselves.”

“Just like you weren’t when we first met each other?”

I flinched at the bluntness. “Y-yeah.”

“Then I’ll keep going,” she stated. “If you can become a better pony, then they can become a better changeling.”

In my attempts to calm her nerves, somehow she had calmed my own. I smiled at my daughter, unable to help but be proud of what she was saying. She was right after all, I had changed a lot since I stepped off that train in Trotson. The term grounder now felt like every bit the horrible slur it truly was, and somehow I felt more genuine care for these wastelanders than I had for most pegasi during my entire military career.

Not everycreature can change, I’m certain Gemini understood that from her own experiences, but her mission was worth it. Not just because it could possibly change the Equalists, but so Night Shine could see the war between both factions ended. I’m certain there were many more spirits out there just like her who wanted the exact same.

“We will have to go into greater detail about guns then,” I said. I playfully poked her belly. “Not to mention get you in better shape. Sure you may not have a lot of fat, but there isn’t a lot of muscle there either.”

“Good thing I have somepony who can teach me these things then,” Gemmy replied, finally managing the faintest smile. Without warning, she wrapped her forelegs around me and gave me the strongest hug she could. “Thanks mom. I needed that.”

“Glad I could help,” I responded, returning the hug immediately.

I’m not entirely sure how long the two of us were laying there. All I know is that, at some point, the two of us heard muffled sobs from the room across. Breaking the hug, our attention turned from each other to the direction the sound was coming from. The crying was a mixture of rage and sorrow, love and despair. It was the sound of a husband who, after decades of happiness with his significant other, was going to sleep without them for the first time in forever.

“Mom, is he…”

Gemmy stopped as she turned to see me staring at the wall, lost. Where my daughter heard Open Heart, I heard Iron Anchor; where one cried for Willow, another cried for Rhapsody.