Tempo sat atop a roof, looking down on the glittering city below. She scanned the streets for any sign of the shadow pony. Her eyes dimmed as her systems recharged, preparing for what would hopefully be the final battle against the Nocturne.

Below her, within her scanning range, Pulse frolicked and danced on a playground. As actors went, he was far from an expert. They played with each thing they came across only briefly, but each thing earnestly, like a foal that had just learned of the wonders of a playground. Tempo wasn't sure if it would fool Nocturne or not, but had no immediate secondary plan in mind. Her children were brave and she wanted to respect that. Even when she feared their safety.

Pulse paused as their senses alerted to darkness. He turned to look right at the dark cloud as it approached from behind. The shadow didn't gather, instead spreading out wide and snuffing all light from around Pulse. He felt fear, knowing he was being attacked, but confidence welled all the same, knowing his mother was watching, and wouldn't let him get hurt.

Nocturne's voice whispered through the air. "A new little foal. Are you afraid of me?" The darkness swirled and shifted like a living creature, its own eyes glowing from the center of the cloud.

"Y-yes." At least partially true, and partially a lie. "Who are you?" Pulse circled in place with wide eyes. "Mom said not to talk to strangers." That wasn't true, but it sounded good and foal-like. Pulse was trying his best.

"Smart filly." The darkness shifted around, almost as if it were considering. "But you are afraid of me. You cannot fight fear."

Pulse's eyes glowed as he looked at the darkness. "I don't have to. I'm not alone. Mom!"

Nocturne laughed, the sound coming from all around Pulse, unsettling the metal.

Tempo wasn't there. At least, she wasn't about to bounce down on what she knew to be a false Nocturne. She was galloping with a steady metal cadance that carried her onwards towards something she could barely sense.

Nocturne spoke, but not to her. "Mommy can't hear you. She doesn't know where you are." It laughed again. "I am going to scare you, then I'm going to devour you." The words dripped with malice. "There will be nothing left, perhaps save a bloody hoof abandoned here."

Pulse's face scrunched up. "You can try! You'll learn your place, monster." He felt fear and let it show. He was scared of the shadow pony, but he knew his mother would be there. He just had to be strong long enough.

Tempo slowed at a corner and glanced around. She turned to an alleyway and approached a dumpster that seemed completely unremarkable, at first glance. She reached out with one hoof and grabbed it, the shadow that was a little too thick in just one place. The darkness around Pulse evaporated as Nocturne woke from their remote work abruptly.

"You!" Nocturne scrambled to their hooves with a scowl. Unlike the shadow they had made, the true one was emaciated, the shadowstuff that made it up somehow scrawny despite its weakly billowing nature. "How?!"

Tempo snorted. Her eyes lit up. "You are not well. You will be returned to where you came from."

Nocturne scowled. "I will not be!" Nocturne shoved against her, but Tempo was a heavy pony. "I must succeed, and you must leave."

"I will not be," echoed Tempo. "You require assistance."

"That won't work." A new voice. Soft metal steps trotted towards them. A glance showed Tempo's other child, Beat, closing quickly. "They're scared."

Nocturne turned to face the new arrival as she approached. "You cannot scare me." Their tone had softened, but it was no less angry.

Beat stood beside her mother. "I'm not here to scare you." She offered a hoof. "I'm here to listen." A little smirk spread on her snout. "I've become something of a greeter of creatures the city can't accept easily. I can help you with that. I'd like to know more about you."

Nocturne peered at her suspiciously. "Why are you so eager? What's your true motive, little doll?"

"I'm still growing." Beat didn't argue being a doll, even looking proud of it. "I am not a normal pony. You are not either. We have more alike than you might think."

Nocturne frowned, then reached out and accepted the hoof bump. "You know what I am? I'm a creature that feeds on fear. If you take that from me, I'll die."

Beat grabbed Nocturne, drawing the shadow creature closer. "The last friend I made fed on love, and thought the same thing."

Tempo tapped at Beat's side. "I am proud of your progress, but why are you here?"

Beat rolled her eyes. "Because you two forgot who started learning that trick that Pulse stole out from under me. Ugh." Where Beat was, there was Pulse, though speaking with Beat's vocal hints as she had changed to look at him. "Look at me, imitating my sister's trick because I couldn't find one of my own!" She huffed. "So, we can talk?"

Nocturne frowned, glancing between the two robots that stood on either side of her. "Why?" She turned and began to walk away. "This is foolish and I will not participate." She paused. "How did you do that?"

Beat followed after Nocturne. "Curious? I'll show you if we can talk." She reconfigured to her usual self with soft sounds of metal sliding smoothly against metal. "You haven't been eating well and you're sick. I think you're the one that's really scared right now. Am I wrong?"

Nocturne stopped in place, looking up at Beat. Nocturne looked like an angry pony, but one made from shadow and with a long tongue flickering out from between its teeth. "You presume to know me?"

"I would like to." Beat glanced back at her mother, watching on quietly. "I would like to listen more, and speak less. Will you talk to me? If you still want to leave, I won't stop you then, if mother agrees. I just want to know you better."

Tempo spoke up. "I agree to this. You are safe." She leveled a hoof at Nocturne. "But you will not haunt the ponies of this city, especially not family of mine."

Beat moved to place herself in the way, so Tempo was less visible. "Maybe you need to do a little haunting. Tell me? I am listening."

Nocturne glanced between Beat and Tempo before glancing away with embarrassment. "Very well. I am new and scared. The city is different, and I don't know how to eat."

Beat inclined her head with soft clockwork ticks. "How do you not know how to eat? Haven't you before?"

Nocturne swatted at Beat, but there was no force behind it. "When my own mother was around." They sank miserably to their belly. "They were showing me. It felt like ages ago, and she's gone now." The shadow thing didn't seem able to make tears, but it sounded like crying all the same.

Beat sat beside the shadowy creature. "I can relate more than you might think." Her eyes shined in the darkness. "Sometimes it feels like I'm alone too."

"You have a mother." Nocturne pointed at Tempo. "She's right there!"

Beat nodded slowly. "Yes. I do. And so do you, if you want."

The darkness paused. "How would I do that?"

Beat leaned forward. "We'd adopt you."

Tempo narrowed her eyes at that. "Do not make proposals for other ponies without their permission."

Nocturne rose to their hooves and stepped over to Tempo, looking up into her eyes. "You're offering me to join your family? I tried to eat your children! That's what I am!"

Tempo calmly met Nocturne's heated gaze. "I have made no such offer."

Beat grabbed Nocturne from behind, pulling that shadow pony into a hug. "I did. Even if the rest of my family says no, I'll adopt you as a little sister. I never had one of those. All I have is a brother, and I'd like a sister."

Nocturne sank into Beat's grasp. "This doesn't change anything. I still need to eat. If you want me alive, you'll have to help me eat."

Beat looked at her mother with an arched brow, silent a moment before she hugged Nocturne all the same, as if that young mare of nightmares was far cuter than worrying. "We'll figure it out, together."

"You make it sound so easy." Nocturne pushed, but not very hard. She was being held, and she was mostly capitulating to the advances. "There's nothing easy about this."

"I'm saying I will put effort into it." Beat nuzzled her maybe nightmare of a sister. "And listen. Are you hungry, right now?"

Nocturne glanced up at her. "How can you even ask that? You've seen me, emaciated and weak. Of course I'm hungry."

Beat nuzzled her new little sister again. "Then we should feed you." An idea lit up with her eyes. "Have you tried eating pony food? I know that is not what you are used to, but have you at least tried?"

The shadowy mare huffed gently and squirmed out of Beat's grip to stand beside her. "No, it wouldn't work."

Beat rose to her hooves. "Do not make assumptions. Maybe it would, and maybe it would not. We won't know until we try. My aunt has a lot of food, and I bet she'd share some if I asked her. Would you like to try? Even a bite?"

Nocturne turned to look at her. "Why are you helping me?"

"Because I think you're in need." Beat smiled warmly. "Because I think you would make a nice friend, once we get to know you." She pressed a hoof to Nocturne's nose. "And don't scare me like you did that other time. That was rude." She stuck out her metal tongue. "But I forgive you. It must have been frightening."

The shadow mare nodded. "It was. I was so scared. I thought I couldn't live without scaring others. I don't know what to do. I haven't seen another of my kind in ages." She stomped in place. "It isn't fair! It is the umbrum's job to be the source of fear, not the one that feels it! You should all be quaking before me!" Her teeth clacked together angrily as she glared at the world in general.

Beat shook her head sadly. "You are small and cute, Nocturne. Is that what an umbrum does?"

Nocturne wheeled on Beat. "An umbrum is terrifying! We scare all that behold us! We—" She flinched back at Beat touched her cheek. "What are you doing?"

"I think you cried." Beat turned her hoof to examine the bit of moisture. "I'm sorry. I would like to help, how can I?"

Tempo stepped beside them. "Come along. We will return to the castle. We can discuss our options from there. Come now, foals." Tempo gestured and led the way back towards the Crystal Castle.

Nocturne watched with surprise and a touch of anger at having been called a foal.

Beat threw a leg over Nocturne, guiding her along. "Everything smaller than her is a foal." She leaned in closer. "I think it's a bug in her programming." Beat snickered at the idea. "But I am a foal, and you are my little sister."

"I am your older sister." Nocturne huffed at the idea. "I'm thousands of moons older than you."

"Even better." Beat hugged Nocturne to her side as they walked through the streets of the city. "We can both learn together." Beat gave Tempo a worried look. "What if this doesn't work out?"

Tempo stuck out her tongue at Beat. "This was your idea. I will support you, but do not act as if it wasn't."

Beat chuckled at her mother. "Yes. You're right." She turned to look at Nocturne. "I hope we can find a solution for you."

"I hope so too. If not, maybe I won't be a bother to anyone anymore." Nocturne looked away. "Perhaps that would be a victory for you."

"Stop that." Beat drew Nocturne in closer as they walked. "It's not a victory until we all get to look back at all this and laugh about it."

Author's Note

Nocturne doesn't seem entirely opposed to being a sister, but she calls dibs on being the older one.

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