Most people had never heard of the Undercity nightclub. It wasn't in the usual places you'd find a nightclub, like a converted warehouse or in the city's commercial district, but rather, it was quite literally right under your nose. No, the Undercity was a decommissioned metro station accessible only by walking along the tracks eastbound from the Palace Boulevard station in the downtown area and detouring down a maintenance corridor. Given that the nightclub served as a meeting place for the things that go bump in the night, as well as a den for Chrysalis' little coterie, an underground location like this was a must.

As Agent Shimmer walked down the maintenance corridor, she noted that some hoodlum had apparently started tagging over the path marker leading to the nightclub, only for the mark of the Undercity to be painted right back over it. Idly, she wondered if she was going to find out one of Chrysalis' children of the night made the tagger disappear, or just put the fear of god into them. The bloodsucker was usually good about policing her kids, but the agent of PONI was under no illusions that vampires weren't territorial little shits.

As had been the case the last time she was in town to check in on a problem child, there was a dark-skinned man with blood-red hair standing guard at the large metal door leading into the nightclub. His violet eyes, which Shimmer was almost certain he had his suit tailored to match, narrowed upon seeing her, and his lips curled just enough to bare his fangs. "You have a lot of nerve showing up here, day walker," he remarked, not at all moving to let her in. "That old Everfree crone is still singing your curses over threatening her great granddaughter, and she's in here every night. The least you could do was show a little gratefulness that she bothered binding your soul back into your body."

Shimmer just set her hands on her hips, one hand moving dangerously close to the revolver resting comfortably at her side. "Pharynx, that Vitamin D deficiency must really be impeding your cognitive functions," she spat, meeting the young vampire's glare. Much to her amusement, he broke eye contact. "Let me refresh your memory: Elder Gaia wouldn't have had to put my soul back if Gloriosa Daisy and her 'Everfree Witches' hadn't been toying around with conjuration in the first place. Honestly, the hag is lucky her great grandbrat didn't end up like the rest of her coven when they botched the summoning."

Knowing that Elder Gaia was a regular face here, and might even be close enough for her supernatural hearing to pick up, she refrained from pointing out that it was the hag's own fault for putting the idea in their heads in the first place. She still had nightmares about the ritual gone wrong that left her soul separated from her body, and didn't need a vengeful two-century old spell-caster adding to it. Instead she just sighed and looked at the door. "My associate's already in there, and your queen should be expecting me. Don't make this hard on yourself."

He must have decided she wasn't worth the trouble, because he reached over and pulled the door open to usher her inside. There were all sorts of unusual creatures you didn't typically see in day to day life. A goblin, a Fae of the Winter Court, and what Shimmer was almost certain was a werebear were playing cards off in one corner, while in a private booth, she could see a well-to-do young man getting fawned over by one of Chryssi's vampires. The girl, slender and pale youth with long pink hair, was dressed up in a Crystal Prep uniform. If she's a student at CPA, her blood must be pure enough that daylight is more of a hindrance than a weakness. Finally, seated at the bar, nursing a beer and conversing with the tall, dark woman tending the bar, was her partner, Agent Tempest Shadow.

The bartender smiled upon seeing Shimmer, and immediately fetched a bottle of grenadine from the shelf behind her, a bottle of sparkling water, and a carton of orange juice from beneath the counter. Before she'd even taken her seat, there was already a virgin sunrise waiting for her. "Agent Shimmer," she greeted with a smile. Even Tempest turned to regard her with curiosity. "How goes your investigation? Find the source of your anomalies yet?"

She waggled her left hand as she sipped the mocktail offered. "One of them, at least," she said with a sigh. Shimmer took out her phone and showed Chrysalis a picture she'd taken of Construct when she was coming in. "I spoke to the girl at Crystal Prep today, and she's from the same place as the Mini-Me residing here in Canterlot. Didn't come the same way as her, but I have no doubt she still has the same kind of magic lingering inside her."

That got a laugh out of the vampire matron as she put away the items used to make Shimmer's drink. When she turned around, she was staring across the nightclub to where the young vampiress was fawning over that guy. "Poor Fleur is going to be heartbroken to find out that she can't sample the 'silent new prey' she was obsessing over." At the confused look of Agent Shadow, Chrysalis explained. "Two years ago, I had some of my thralls run a blood drive at Canterlot High School. Most went to the hospital, while a quarter of all of the takings had been distributed to my coterie. Poor Apocrita got the blood from Shimmer's mysterious counterpart, and fell to pieces... Literally."

Sunset chuckled, as she sipped her drink. "Chryssi here was so up in a tizzy thinking that someone invented a poison targeting vampires, so I was sent in to investigate before she ended up reigniting the cold war between her vampires and the therianthropes." She changed the picture on her phone to one that showed her sitting beside what looked to be a much younger version of herself—maybe thirteen years old—who was looking very grumpy at the 'Interdimensional Runaway' t-shirt she'd been forced to wear. Content it was the best picture, she showed it to Agent Shadow, who baulked at the sight of it. "Colour me surprised when I came across this brat. Ran away through a magic mirror from a place rich in magic. Couldn't get much out of her beyond a promise to stay on the right side of the law, and to keep her head down. Chryssi's kids have been keeping an eye out for her ever since."

Chrysalis began shaking her head and looked up at the ceiling. "Now that I think of it, I might know where your other anomalies came from, and Little Red is smack dab in the middle of it," she remarked as she turned to Shimmer with a thoughtful expression. "Did you hear about the incident at Canterlot High on the eighth?"

Sunset looked down at her mocktail and sighed. Fishing out her ten years sober chip from her jacket pocket, she stared at it and asked, "Is this going to end up challenging my sobriety, Chrysalis?" The laughter from the vampire matron did nothing to make her feel better. "Goddamn it, kid."

The car ride back to the Sparkle household felt awkward. Not only would Cadance have to bring up the unfortunate bullying incident and my weak constitution this afternoon, we would be having a discussion about something I realise I probably should have been more open about. I still wasn't feeling amazing, and crying it out in front of Agent Shimmer hadn't really done anything to help. The emotional numbness from the trip back to Cadance's office was replaced by a sluggishness in my body and a return of the exhaustion from earlier.

At least the discussion with Cadance had revealed something after I brought up DID. Apparently, when they first brought me to meet Principal Cinch, they noticed how I seemed to become a different person dealing with Cinch and her secretary, and how I seemed to be dissociating. On top of that, she seemed to catch on to my surprise at my own behaviour. The woman definitely paid a lot more attention to the people around her than most. It made sense though; she was a counsellor on top of being the dean of the school, and she'd be trained to notice that kind of thing.

That was when she told me what I looked like from the outside. It wasn't just my behaviour that was different, apparently. To her, my gaze appeared unfocused, and my demeanour became cold. More than that, though, it looked to her like I was taking sadistic glee in putting Mr. Willow and Mrs. Cinch off their game, and that I seemed used to playing those exact same mind games.

I mean, she wasn't wrong, but... Did I really take pleasure in it? It genuinely wasn't something I was sure about. Back in Equestria, dealing with the Resplendent's XO, it was just part of the job... One that annoyed me, but something I just dealt with. Was I inadvertently taking out years of frustration on them?

That Cadance had noticed at all worried me but it also made me rethink my actions over the last few weeks. Some distant part of me enjoyed putting that little bitch, Sour, in her place this morning. It resonated with my memories of my interaction with Cinch and screwing with Sour and Sunny at lunch on my first day. Hell, it kind of reminded me of the time I beat up that gangster. It was nothing like all the times I defended myself or Cantata when we were growing up. More than anything, it felt exactly like that rage I'd felt at Tirek and Discord before I died—like something that wanted to claw its way out and make others hurt for trying to hurt me or those I care about.

This wasn't the drive to protect I was used to. If I looked at how I defended Cantata, I only used enough force as was necessary, and I didn't enjoy it; it was just what I was supposed to do as the rational protector. Nor was it the emotional parts that used to belong to Cantata that showed through in recent times of helplessness. It honestly put a bit of a terrifying thought inside my head. What if this was what it was like for her before I became self-aware? What if Sunset was right, and I had a ticking time-bomb inside my head because I was becoming more like Cantata used to be?

It was for that reason that I'd remained silent for almost the entirety of the trip home. I didn't want to think about it any more before I had to discuss it with Velvet and Night. I probably wouldn't see Shining until the weekend dinners, but I knew Cadance would be talking to him. Shit. What if this precludes me from getting into law enforcement?

Quietly, I shook my head and tried to focus on the music Cadance had playing. Don't need to work myself up or stress out more than I already am. Otherwise Ms. Shimmer is right. Luckily for me, the car radio was tuned into a station that focused on jazz music. It was something that was easy to lose myself in, and it was relaxing.

As we drove, however, I noticed something that I initially put aside as a part of the music. There was a slight ticking noise. At first, I thought it might've been a metronome in either song, or maybe the turn signal indicator, but as I paid more attention to it, I became a lot more certain it wasn't either—it wasn't a consistent sound, but there was a bit of a pattern to it. If I was right, then it was something I should bring up now.

When we stopped at a red light at an intersection, I tapped Cadance's elbow, hit the mute button for the radio, and then typed up a question. "Cadance, do you hear an irregular ticking sound?"

She stopped and listened for a few seconds, and I was passively waving my pointer finger in time with the noise. After a few moments, she shook her head. "No, I can't say I hear it," she admitted as the light changed and the car in front of us began to move. She seemed a bit wary before asking, "Are you sure it's not just debris kicked up by the tires hitting the undercarriage?"

I shook my head as she started moving forward. It became more frequent as the engine picked up in RPM. Definitely something off with the timing. Combustion engines were relatively new in Equestria, and the Royal Equestrian Navy was one of the first to adopt such engines for smaller craft. Although they were still unfeasible for larger naval vessels and airships, they proved to be rather effective on things like the resupply skiff that I'd been working on back home. Ugly monstrosity, but that little barge was practically my baby. Hope that they didn't put her under Lug Nut's care.

"It sounds like there's something off with the timing in your engine," I explained after a moment of reminiscence. "Or the oil pressure is low. Either way, you might wanna get it looked at before you blow a head gasket or worse."

She gave me a sidelong glance as we pulled up to the gates of the Ponyville Plaza gated community. "You had to miss out on your first auto-shop class today, so I'm somewhat surprised that you seem so sure," she said in a careful tone. "How can you be so sure?"

I just folded my arms in front of me and gave her a bratty look before finally typing out an answer. "You probably won't believe me, but I've had to strip down and rebuild one or two rudimentary internal combustion engines before." Still, she didn't really look like she bought it, so I tapped out one last message before putting the tablet away. "Just remember what I said when you start hearing the ticking or it starts sputtering."

The hours leading up to dinner were tense. Rather than talking to Velvet and Night Light with me, she chose to speak to them in the kitchen alone first. Although Velvet seemed to wish to discuss things with me, she seemed to be waiting until after dinner, likely knowing that stressing about this beforehand would likely kill my appetite. She was probably right.

At some point, while Cadance was briefing the foster parents, Twilight got in. Although she gave me a worried look as she passed the living room, she seemed to be in a hurry. I barely even saw their face before she was up the stairs and into her room. Shortly after, she ran back down the stairs dressed in a hoodie and track pants, darting through the kitchen and out to the lab. I could just make out her telling her folks that she'd be eating in the garage.

I guess Agent Shimmer wasn't the only one who picked up whatever that was this morning... If that really was me she detected, then she was probably right in that hiding it from Twilight wouldn't be easy. That probably meant that I would have to find out if I still had some semblance of magic still inside me, but without wings, it wasn't like I'd be able to try flying or jumping on a cloud. Not that it would be feasible either way; clouds are way higher up in this world.

The easiest way to test would probably be those spell circles I took the time to learn back in LRSLG training. They were something almost nopony tried to learn because they were time-consuming to draw out, not as efficient as unicorn casting, and you had to have your lines near perfect or the whole array would just waste most of the energy put into it. You either had to etch it into something, or draw it on a surface with chalk, which would burn away upon casting.

Take the repair cantrip for example; that array had to be drawn large enough to fit the object you wanted to fix up, and you couldn't use it on complex parts—only components. If I needed to fix a cracked camshaft or bent head gasket and we didn't have spares in storage, I still had to strip down the engine to get the part. Plus, even if I did have it etched in my workbench back on the Resplendent, I couldn't use it to quickly fix multiple parts, lest the metal heat and warp, distorting the lines.

If I was going to test magic, I'd have to do it away from the house and the school, and that meant waiting until I had my bus pass. Ideally, I'd take that pocket money that they gave me, find somewhere to get some chalk, and find an out of the way place to test out the light cantrip. Or could it work with pen ink and a scrap of paper?

Dinner was a quiet affair. It was a dish of rice served alongside carrots and potatoes—and meat for them—in some kind of spicy, savoury sauce. Something I quickly noticed while living with this family was that they tended to eat a lot of international foods. It was good for me, because there tended to be a larger variety of vegetarian or fish options for me. American cuisine seemed to be focused more around meats like beef, pork, and chicken than anything else.

Regardless, the meal was very good, if a bit spicy for my tastes. Like I said, though, it was quiet. With Twilight off in her lab, presumably poring over readings from whatever equipment she detected magic with, and Spike presumably gone with her, that just left me to sit in silence while the others finished. I had my tablet in reach, but I never used it at the table during mealtime because it somehow felt disrespectful.

Instead, I busied myself with washing my dish and cleaning up everything that Mrs. Velvet used while she was cooking. It was fairly simple to entertain myself with the idea that they wouldn't want to get rid of me, because it meant having a teenager around that wouldn't give them any lip about doing chores, and it turned out to be a good way to make most of it fly by—especially when I considered that they'd already invested a lot in me. Inevitably, though, my mind did wander back to my fear as to how they'd react. Sure, Night Light and Twilight Velvet were undeniably good people, but even good people have limits, and not disclosing mental health issues out of fear and paranoia might be a step too far for them.

For that reason, I began contemplating exactly what I would tell them. My emotions were still burned out after today, so I probably wouldn't have another breakdown like I did with Agent Shimmer. Obviously, I couldn't tell them everything, because they would absolutely think I was crazy if I brought up being a pegasus mare from Equestria. Even when I discussed it with Sparkle, it was with an air of 'I don't believe it's real either'. Still, I needed to disclose enough of the truth to make it believable.

If Twilight discovers magic and rats me out, it'll be easier to open up with them and tell the complete truth if they already know most of it.

By the time I was finished doing the dishes and had dried my hands off, the pair polished off their own meals and put their dishes aside. They watched me expectantly as I walked back over to the table and took my usual seat, sitting my tablet in front of me. "Eventide, dear, I wish you could have been a bit more open with us," Velvet began in a soft voice that was clearly intended to show no aggression. "This is the sort of thing we need to know about as your guardians—something you should have disclosed when we took you in."

If I still had my pony ears, they'd have reflexively folded back in a display of guilt or shame. Enough of it apparently showed on my face that Night Light reached across the narrow table and patted my nearest hand. "Just so we're clear, neither of us are angry with you," he explained, retracting his hand. He still looked rather disappointed. "Still, I wish you would have told us sooner. CPA is not a gentle school, and from what Cadance told us, you have a condition that really does not play well with extremely stressful situations. We wouldn't have even considered sending you there if we'd known."

I shook my head and began typing out a response. "I'm sure CPA will be stressful, but it's nowhere near as bad as some of the things I know for certain about my past. I'm honestly glad to have Twilight, Starlight, and the friends I've been making. It'd be harder to start if I didn't know anybody there." The pair looked even more worried when I mentioned my past, but I ignored the expressions on their face. "I... We... were originally born Eventide Cantata. For the first four years of our life, we were just an ordinary girl. Then it happened."

It was hard to tell if they both got the implication, but to be on the safe side, Night spoke up in search of clarification. "It?"

With a tired nod, I began typing. "A friend of our father forced himself upon Cantata." Velvet gasped, and Night looked aghast. It probably didn't help that I just looked tired, rather than with any degree of emotion. Admittedly, that's because I'd already had it drug up by the PONI agent and discussed it with Cadance beforehand, so there wasn't really any more emotion to spend. "While Dad made sure he could never hurt anyone ever again, the damage was still done. Cantata was scared by the event, and couldn't cope. Thus, I was born—someone rational, confident, and willing to stand up for her.

"We lived in harmony and held a healthy partnership for several years, even after the sickness claimed Dad. Even when she ignored my warning and got taken in by someone who only wanted free labour, we stuck it out and managed not to end up with any other roommates," I explained, feeling my eyes grow wet in spite of how emotionally dead I felt at that exact moment. "After we ended up back on the streets, she fell head over heels in love with this boy. I tried to warn her exactly what sort of person he was, which led to a huge argument and me getting pushed down and ignored. He used and abused her, threw her away, and broke her heart and I was helpless to protect her. Only then did she let me back out.

"I've been alone, and never heard a peep from her, ever since." I took a shaky breath and looked from one to the other. Clutching one hand against my chest, I returned my gaze to the table. "The last thing Cantata ever said to me was during the initial fight. 'I hate you, Construct, and I never wanna talk to you again.' Heh. I guess she got her wish. I'm sure she's still in here somewhere, but..."

"Ah jeeze," Night remarked, looking from me to Velvet. "That's awful. I still wish you could have told us sooner."

Velvet gave him this look that could probably kill. "Nighty, that's hardly something she could just drop on someone she'd just met," she argued. "What's important is that now that we know, we can work with her to make sure she stays safe and gets help."

Night light didn't look entirely convinced. If anything, he seemed wary, casting furtive glances to the back door. "You're right of course, Vel," he admitted with a drawn-out exhalation. "Still, you need to tell us if there's anyone new up there. Especially if they're aggressive." The unspoken message was pretty clear. I don't want you or whoever else is in there to hurt my daughter.

From there, we began talking about methods to keep myself grounded, so that if I ever did get stressed out, I could bring myself down from a panic attack. Admittedly, I needed a new calming method since I couldn't simply focus on the air flow through specific flight feathers as a human. There was the five-four-three-two-one method, listing five things I saw, four I could touch, three I could hear, two I could smell, and one I could taste. Then there was stuff like counting backwards from one hundred in sevens, reciting something from memory, and various visualisation techniques. Getting up and moving was another option I had.

There was no doubt in my mind that they would probably talk to Twilight about this themselves, but by the end of the conversation, I was mentally run-down and ready to just crash. After taking care of their dishes as well, I returned upstairs and changed into my pyjamas. My last thought before falling asleep was that—for good or for bad—I felt I'd made the right choice.

Author's Note

Time skip, and then be prepared for solo shopping, magic, and meeting our favourite redemption heroine! How have things been going for our other Equestrian girl, and how will she react to meeting Eventide? Only time will tell!

While we're building up towards the climax of Arc 2, I'd like to ask you, the audience, what sort of interactions you'd like to see in the meantime. You want to see more of Connie enjoying some sweet tunes with Lemon? How about archery club rivalries? Maybe you want to find out what in the heck Jinx Charm's deal is. Did Shiny ever take Connie to the range to teach her about gun safety? Lemme know if there are any specific scenarios you guys really want me to have a go at, and if it doesn't throw a major wrench into the Arc 2 climax, you might just see it worked in. If an idea directly contributes toward that climax, yeah, you're probably more likely to see it. Not telling what that is, however.

Arc 3 is definitely gonna be a fun, 'cause we're gonna see music, magic, and mask-off.