After spending the night at Miss Sweep's home, Merry headed out early in the morning to find her father. The door was open and light spilled out into the early hours. The sky above was painted with hues of pink and gold, while the sun hid just beyond the horizon.

The Eclipse Born all had a rough night of sleep. Star was the last one up. She walked over to the door and peeked out. "Do you think it worked?"

Sweep leaned in over her. "Do you think what worked?"

Star jumped in surprise at her mother's presence. "Oh! Um."

Night and Dawn looked up at them from their bowls.

Dawn swallowed what he already had. "We caught a criminal." He looked around before continuing, "And we hoped it'd get the town to treat us better."

Sweep shook her head. "Y'all coulda got hurt! Ain't worth chasin' no ne're do wells just to make grumpy ponies happy. If any of ya got hurt, ah'd be broken-hearted."

"Sorry," Dawn muttered, looking down.

Star rubbed gently against Sweep. "We did it for you too. We want to be able to go around town, but ponies don't even want to sell us stuff."

Sweep looked between her foals with concern etched deep into her face. She dropped a bit lower and gathered up Star into her arms. "Ah 'ppreciate the idea, ah really do. But if ah had to pick 'tween you gettin' hurt or a hundred moons of their back talkin', I'll take the back talking. You're all okay, right?"

"We're okay," Night assured her.

Dawn nodded along with Night. "We found her house and went in, and she was nice." He paused. "But also kinda not? She seemed afraid."

"Who?" Sweep set Star down. "Who're you talkin'—Oh! The fugitive?" She draw a soft hiss of a breath. "Best to put her words clear of your little heads. Can't be listenin' to criminals. They'll tell all sorts of lies."

Dawn shrugged at that. "I don't see how she could have hurt us."

Sweep shivered, glancing aside. "Y'all took a mighty big risk. Now, get ready fer the day, which won't include no not one bit of huntin' fer bad ponies, ya hear?"

"Yes, Miss Sweep." They chorused as one.

Night smiled up at her, then moved to finish his breakfast.

Star watched them, but looked away with a frown on her lips. "Miss Sweep?" Sweep looked over. "What if they send somepony to catch us, like we did?"

Sweep let the near silence draw out as the others went about their morning routines. "Ah'd stand in their way." She put a hoof to her chest. "Ah'd be the mare y'all done caught, standing in the way." She shivered at the thought. "Enough of that! Get movin'!"

The foals finished getting ready and headed out. Dawn flitted ahead of the others. "What do you think we should do today? We've got all this free time. Where's Merry live again?"

Night snickered softly. "That eager to see her again?"

"Yeah?" Dawn landed, trotting backwards to face them. "Why wouldn't I be? She's nice!"

Star nodded with a smile. "I'm glad you made a new friend."

Dawn blushed lightly. "Thanks." She glanced around as they reached the town proper, looking over the houses.

A pony pointed at them, a thing they'd learned to notice quickly. It was a guard pony, and several were approaching. They glanced around, taking stock of possible escape routes, but held their ground.

One of the guards approached the foals with a calm look on his face. "You're all the little ones that captured the fugitive?" He paused and looked at each one. "I'm sorry to say we don't have any awards, but I appreciate what you did. Good deeds deserve something." He tapped a hoof on the ground. "Let me ask, what is it you small lot were hoping for?"

Star stared at him a moment. "We wanted ponies to stop being so mean to us."

The guard snorted with amusement. He looked over them again. "You want to be accepted, but what you really did wasn't for the town." He waved a hoof over them. "You did a service for Equestria, as a whole. Best I can do is make sure the mayor knows what brave little foals you were."

The group glanced among one another.

"Does that mean you'll make ponies be nicer?" asked Dawn. He looked over the guards hopefully, wings twitching at his sides.

"Unfortunately," he began with a sigh, "the mayor has no control over how his citizenry thinks, nor do I. It's not against the law to not like a pony, and I'm an enforcer of those laws." He nodded with the severity meant by it. "Keep on doing the right thing, and ponies will come around in time."

The foals glanced among themselves, but didn't say anything more to that. They watched as the guards left, walking back to the other side of town. The town didn't seem much different to them.

"Well, um," said Merry from behind.

The foals looked around to see Merry standing there. "Morning." She nodded to them with a bright smile. "Pa was mad at me 'playing guard', but we did it in the end." She joined them at a trot. "So, what do you all do for fun around here?"

Dawn bounced on his hooves. "Lots of things!"

Night snorted. "We could go swimming."

Merry grabbed Night and Dawn and mashed them together. "Why aren't you all at school?"

Dawn squirmed a bit against her, but didn't pull away. "We don't go. The teachers don't want us, and the students are scared of us."

"That's awful!" Merry released them, just to cross her arms. "Well, you're heroes now. They can't keep you out. I should go to class, and I want my friends with me."

Star smiled and nudged her playfully. "You've been here one day."

"Yeah? You all seem nicer than most of them." She waved around. "You don't talk behind my back." Merry turned for where class was held. "C'mon. If they don't let you go, I'll go with you wherever you want to be, but we have to at least try, right?"

Dawn nodded in agreement as he fluttered at her side. "Right! The teacher's gonna have to be a lot nicer after what happened yesterday."

Star and Night fell into their wake, walking behind.

Night leaned in towards Star. "What if it doesn't work?"

Star shrugged. "I dunno, then we go with Merry and find something more fun to do."

The group of them seemed to agree with a little cheer as they sped up towards the tiny building that served as the community's schoolhouse. It was run by volunteer teachers who were usually older ponies, or ones that simply had time to spare.

As the group of foals approached, they found the door was shut. Merry tried to open it, but it didn't give. She went for knocking on it instead. It was quiet a long moment before it cracked open and a snout poked out.

The elderly stallion looked down at the lot of them. "What? More of ya? Get in here." He backed up, the door opening wide. "We're already busy. Get to yer seats!" Not that the tiny town had proper school desks, just a bunch of foals gathered in a semi-circle facing their teacher of the day.

Merry pointed at the others, who were standing together nervously. "They're with me! I want them in class with me."

The stallion snorted at the idea. "I don't care where you sit, jus' sit!" He huffed as the lot of them got inside and he closed the door behind them. "Now, as ah was sayin'! You gotta be extra careful when you go plantin' things. Most things wanna go in spring, but some don't." He tapped a pointer held in his mouth at the black board. "See these? Spring. These? Fall. And these." He pointed to the smallest list. "Right in the cold of winter. Notice most of 'em are veggies. Ain't nothin' wrong with some veggies!"

Dawn nodded as he pulled out a bit of parchment from her bag. "We can learn this," she said as she took notes. "We can even grow something, so we have more money."

Star clapped gently. "We could have a garden. Miss Sweep'd be so proud."

"Shush!" The teacher hurled an eraser, not that it got anywhere close to them. "Next thing..." He moved along to the next subject.

Night leaned in towards Merry and lowered his voice. "Are we allowed to be here?" He glanced at the teacher, who was now explaining the importance of good manners.

Merry shrugged with a muted giggle. "Teacher didn't stop you. Take notes." She dug out her own pad and got a pencil in her snout to dutifully note down what the teacher was saying.

Night squirmed. "I don't have paper."

"You can share mine," Merry said with a nicker.

"Me three?" asked Dawn with a roll of her eyes. "We can pass it back and forth."

Merry put her note down where all their eyes could see what she was scribbling down busily. A crumpled wad of paper landed on it just moments later.

Looking up in a dart, Night caught one of the other students looking away as innocently as they could. He gave them a dirty look before going to remove the wad of paper.

When he unrolled it, he found it said, "Go back to where you came from." Night crumpled it back up and dropped it beside himself.

Fortunately, that was the only overt act, and they made it to lunch. "Break time." The older stallion unlocked and opened the door. "Got an hour. Be back and sitting in time for the rest of the day!" He called as several foals darted right by him.

Merry looked to her new friends, smiling. "I was planning to run home and fetch something." A look around showed many other foals were doing the same. Some had pails or bagged lunches they were working on. Others still just played.

The Eclipse Born looked around nervously, but no one approached or threw anything more than dirty looks. They gathered up tightly, like a small band of soldiers.

Night cleared his throat. "So, uh, how about we go get some lunch for all of us?"

Dawn nodded quickly. "Meet back here. We can eat it here, so we don't miss when things start up again."

They moved out from under the tree they'd been sitting at. It was only a stone's throw away from the schoolhouse itself, which sat in a field of grass just off the main street. Foals were already running about and playing with one another. After a brief dash, they scurried into their home to face a confused looking Sweep. "Y'all don't usually come in so eager-like. That hungry, or got into that much trouble?"

"No," said Night. "I guess you can say we're just really happy!" He turned to Star, then Dawn. "We got into class today, and we want to eat there so we don't miss anything."

Sweep clapped her hooves together. "Well ain't that somethin'! You jus' wait right there and Ah'll get something yummy to bring back to class." Humming joyfully, she got right to fixing up lunches to go for the whole crew of them. "That mean you'll be goin' everyday now?"

"That'd be great!" Night looked to Star, who nodded along with him. "Yeah. School could be kind of nice."

Dawn giggled as he flapped around. "If I knew it was gonna be like this, I'd have tried it before!" He folded his wings on landing and sank to his haunches. "We got the okay of the teacher. We just have to show the other foals we're alright."

"We can do that!" Star bounced a bit on her hooves as she watched Sweep with interest.

Sweep finished putting things into small containers and lined them up. "One fer each of ya." She passed them to eager little hooves, and one glowing horn. "Mind yer manners and learn some good thin's."

Night smiled brightly. "Thanks Ma!" they chorused together as one.

The Eclipse Born carried their lunches back to class with Merry. The grass field surrounding it was full of ponies eating or playing together, but there wasn't any groups around their tree, so they quickly reclaimed it and got to devouring the sammiches that their ma had prepared for them.

Merry chewed thoughtfully. "I've never had a school like this." She nibbled a little more, glancing at each of the Eclipse Born. "My pa's always traveling. You're lucky you can go to one place."

Night shook his head, about to say something when the sammich held between his magic went flying away, batted aside by the swat of a larger, scowling, foal.

She loomed over him with a sneer. "What are you Moon Freaks doing? You're supposed to stay away from school!"

Dawn jumped up onto his hooves. "We don't have to listen to you! Go away!" She backed up towards the tree behind them as she spoke.

"I think," said one of the fillies at her side, "we got a little colt who thinks he's all that."

"Do we now?" The large filly stepped forward towards Dawn, glaring with a feral grin at Dawn's shivering. "We'll have to teach him a lesson about how things work around here."

Author's Note

Things are heating up, and that was a waste of a good sammich, dang it.

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