Later that day, I was trotting down the stairs when I heard ponies shouting in the bar. I hugged the railing, and peeked through the balustrades to find Candy Cane and Summer Smiles standing in the middle of the dining room.

Summer Smiles pleaded with her, "Cane, you need to stop this, you're hurting yourself!"

"Hurting myself?” Candy Cane snapped. “I'm keeping myself sane, that's what I'm doing!" she growled, craning her neck so that they could see eye to eye.

Summer Smiles chuckled darkly, shaking her head as she studied the mare’s weary face.

"The bags under your eyes tell me a different story."

"And what’s that? What story is that?” she demanded, her voice hoarse.

Candy Cane turned away for a moment, shaking her head vigorously. “You don't know a damned thing, Summer, okay? You don't know a damned thing! You just don’t!"

Summer Smiles opened her mouth – but hung her head instead.

"No … I don’t. I don’t, Cane, so please – tell me!” Summer Smiles begged her.

Candy Cane laughed bitterly, turning her back to her and starting for the stairs.

“Cane!” Summer Smiles cried, and the mare stopped at the foot of the stairs. “I can't stand by and watch you slave around like this. You haven't gotten any rest in days -"

Candy Cane turned and cut her off, sweeping a hoof through the air. "I don't need to sleep!” she shot back. Candy Cane’s ears wilted, her eyes turning low as she murmured “I'm … perfectly fine."

Summer Smiles took a step toward her. Candy Cane flinched.

"No, no you're not. You're not, Cane, and you know it.” Summer Smiles came closer and laid a hoof on Candy Cane’s trembling shoulder, squeezing her gently. "You can tell me, Cane … tell me, please! Tell me how I can help you! Just let me help you – somehow!"

Candy Cane shrugged her off and turned her head the other way.

She clenched her jaw and said, softly, "You can't ..." Tears were threatening to well out of her eyes as she avoided Summer Smiles’ pleading gaze.

Summer Smiles inched closer, biting her lower lip. “Cane …” she said, softly, holding Candy Cane’s hoof. She gave her a warm, gentle smile.

"I can … but you need to let me in." She leaned closer, her muzzle close enough to hers to feel her trembling breath. "I'm the same Summer Smiles you knew ... the same one you’ve always known." She stared deep into Candy Cane’s cold grays. "I love you, Cane, you know I do ... I always have. Please ... just let me help you ..."

“Please don’t …” Candy Cane whimpered, but Summer Smiles held her quaking shoulders, pulling her close – and the mare stilled.

The two peered into each other’s eyes, the silent seconds ticking by like quaking heartbeats. Summer Smiles cupped her hooves around Candy Cane’s cheeks. Summer Smiles hesitated, biting her lower lip as Candy Cane’s let out a shaky sigh.

Then she leaned in and filled the gap between them, pressing her lips against hers.

I watched as Candy Cane went stiff, her eyes widening at Summer Smiles’ kiss.

“GET OFF OF ME!” Candy Cane screamed – and shoved the mare away from her.

"C-Candy Cane – I-I’M SO SORRY!” she stammered, starting toward her with one hoof outstretched.

“NO!” Candy Cane shrieked, stopping Summer Smiles in her tracks. The mare stomped a hoof into the floorboards, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Don’t you ever do that to me again … nobody… nobody will ever do that to me again ...”

Candy Cane turned and fled up the stairs. I thought on my hooves, starting down the steps as if I'd been in the middle of doing so the whole time. Candy Cane didn't even seem to notice me as she blundered past and bolted upstairs.

I heard a door slam when I reached the bottom. Summer Smiles stood alone in the dining area, staring desolately into space. It took a few seconds for her to register that I was there.

"What ... what happened?" I asked her.

"I ... I just need some air," Summer Smiles murmured, clenching her jaw as sobs threatened to erupt from her chest. The mare trotted away from me, buttoning up her winter coat and throwing on her saddlebags. "I'm going to buy groceries ... I'll be back in a few hours."

I sat by myself in the dining area, thinking. I wasn’t sure if that was the same mare I met at the Scullion. Poor Summer Smiles … she unleashed a part of Candy Cane I didn’t think she had caged inside of her. It frightened me to think of what might’ve happened had it escalated further.

Probably with Summer Smiles lying on the floor with a broken jaw.

Goddesses.

I wondered: maybe Candy Cane’s barn doors just didn’t swing that way? I mean, I’d probably get defensive too if a stallion took a shot at kissing me like that.

I sighed, shaking my head as I set my hooves upon the counter and lowered my head between them.

That might’ve been the case. But even then, I was hardly scratching the surface.

I came up the stairs later that day and heard voices emanating from the room down the hall. I poked my head inside and found Candy Cane standing before Doodle and Hops, her levitation magic gripping a stick of chalk and scrawling with it across a chalkboard. Hops nodded inquisitively, penning notes into a small notebook. Doodle just sat there with her head against a bookcase, bored.

Candy Cane’s eyes gravitated towards mine when she noticed that I was standing awkwardly in the doorway. She cocked her head and motioned for me to come in with a glancing smile. I took a seat next to the fillies as she continued her lecture.

She was wearing her mask again. It was as if what I saw earlier that day hadn’t even happened.

Candy Cane cleared her throat, brushing a bob of her curly mane out of her eye. She pressed the stick of chalk against the chalkboard and said, “Okay, girls. So far, we have the Ministries of Wartime Tech, Arc-Sciences, Peace, Image, Morale, and Awesome – right, girls?”

Hops nodded quietly as Doodle stared off into space.

'Ugh, I thought, 'History. I hated history.'

Candy Cane’s smiled at Doodle, patiently.

“Right, girls?”

Doodle groaned, and nodded her head furiously, “Yes – yes – yes, Auntie.”

“Good!” Candy Cane said cheerfully, clopping her hooves together. “Now, girls, let’s review the ministry mares, starting with the mare who led the Ministry of Arcane Sciences.”

Doodle opened her mouth to answer, raising a hoof, but Hops’ hoof beat her to it.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Hops said out loud – well, as loud as a demure little filly like her could get.

“Right!” She wrote ‘Twilight’ across the board. “Then we have the Ministry of Morale, led by?”

“Oh – I know! I KNOW!” Doodle blurted out, forgetting to raise her hoof.

Hops’ hoof slowly rose to the air as her sister fidgeted excitedly.

“Yes, Hops, do you know?”

“Pinkie Pie,” Hops answered, once more.

Candy Cane opened her mouth – and Doodle’s hoof shot into the air.

“I KNOW THIS ONE!”

I smirked as Candy Cane sighed, “Doodle, I didn’t even ask my question yet –”

“No – I got this, I swear to Celestia!”

She snorted, “Okay, Doodle, who led the Ministry of Image?”

Doodle clenched her jaw, opened her mouth to answer, closed, then touched her chin, baffled and perplexed. Her muzzle scrunched up as she stared at the ceiling. I felt Candy Cane’s glare upon me as my shoulders rocked with snickers. Doodle wrinkled her brow, thinking – to no avail.

'Aw, hell.' She needed a lifeline.

My eyes darted around, and I coughed, “Ahrarity …”

Her eyes lit up, as if Celestia herself had given her a sign from above.

“Rarity!”

Candy Cane cocked an eyebrow, giving me an exasperated look. I held in a giggle, covering my mouth with a hoof. Of all the ministry mares I probably forgot or didn’t care enough to remember, there was no way I could forget Rarity.

She was hot.

“Good … good job Doodle,” Candy Cane chuckled, writing Rarity’s name across the chalkboard. “Alright, now we have the Ministries of Wartime Technology, and Peace. We talked about them last, earlier, so they should be easy. Who were they led by?”

Doodle let out a squirrelly cry, “APPLEJACK AND FLUTTERSHY!”

Damn. She didn’t raise her hoof.

The little filly grinned as Candy Cane eyed her quietly, and cupped a hoof over a smile. Meanwhile, Hops slowly raised hers.

“Yes, Hops, do you know?”

“Applejack, and Fluttershy,” Hops replied, tersely.

Candy Cane clopped her hooves together, “Great job, Hops! That makes five out of the six ministries. We have one more, and it’s the Ministry of … ?”

Doodle’s ears perked up and she shouted, “Awesome!”

“Yes, Doodle, the Ministry of Awesome, your favorite ministry!” She tapped her stick of chalk against the chalkboard. “But can you tell me who led the Ministry of Awesome?”

'Rainbow … something,' I thought, 'Rainbow … brash? Rash? Crash?' Rainbow Rash sounded like a horrible disease. I sighed. It was hard enough remembering history, but it was even harder to remember a ministry that was known for not doing shit during the war.

But Doodle’s face lit up. Of course she knew.

“RAINBOW DASH!” she nickered, gleefully.

“Right! And can you tell me what their focus was during the war?”

Doodle stood up on her little midget legs.

“They were focused on being awesome, that’s what!”

I chewed my lower lip, suppressing a grin.

Candy Cane smiled, but shook her head. Doodle sighed, hanging hers, dismayed.

“Hops, do you know?”

The little filly nodded. “Nothing that we know of,” she said, simply.

“That’s right – their story is one muddled in mystery.” She tapped her chin, thinking. “They might have been conducting special operations outside of the public eye. My father always told me –”

Doodle whipped her head back and groaned.

“Oh my Goddesses, this is soooooo boring,” she sighed.

“I think this is pretty fun,” I chuckled, nudging Doodle with a hoof. “To watch.”

Candy Cane tapped her chalkstick against the chalkboard. “Now, now, Doodle, you ought to know your basic Equestrian history.”

“Why?” she demanded. “Why do we care, I mean it’s not like we’re ever going to need this when we get older,” Doodle moaned, laying down on the floor with her hooves flailing in the air.

I giggled out loud at that.

“She’s right you know,” I said, grinning at her. She pointed a hoof at me.

“See, even Mister Dawn agrees!”

Candy Cane glared at me, and opened her mouth to say something, but Hops’ voice, soft and hardly audible, somehow beat her to it.

“It’s important that we learn from our history, Doodle, so that the past won’t repeat itself,” she whispered, not looking up from her notes. My eyes widened at the wizened filly’s words. That’s what Dew Drops used to tell me. “Ignorance only makes more monsters.”

Candy Cane saw my bewildered expression and giggled. “Exactly, Hops. I couldn’t have put it any better myself,” Candy Cane said, tipping her chin proudly.

“Blah, blah, blah!” Doodle cut in. “This is just some nerdy egghead stuff that nopony gives a flying feather about. When you’re out in the snow, knowing what dead pony blew the world up isn’t gonna save you when the monsters come out.”

I cocked a brow at the filly, unable to contain a petty smirk. “We’re like twins, you and I,” I said, ruffling up her mane with my hoof. If she kept that up, she’d be like me one day.

A pony who couldn’t even remember what M.A.S stood for.

“Red Dawn … please don’t encourage her,” Candy Cane groaned.

But Hops could attest. “I care …”

“All those ponies are dead anyways. It’s not like they matter now,” Doodle griped. “Can’t we just go outside and play in the snow? I’ve been stuck in this place for weeks now!”

“You know we can’t go outside …” Hops said, her voice merely a trembling whisper. “If we go outside, then those bad Palomino ponies are going to hurt us ...That’s why Mom never lets us go outside anymore.”

I couldn’t feel Candy Cane’s glare upon my face anymore. Something in Candy Cane’s eyes changed.

“Bad ponies shmonies,” her sister snorted. “I’m not afraid of a bunch of fedora-wearing losers. I mean, who wears hats? It’s always dark outside anyways. That’s like wearing sunglasses at night – and it’s always night!”

I gulped, worried about the silence that was coming from Candy Cane.

“Don’t underestimate those ponies …” Hops said, turning to her. “Don’t you remember? They’re the ones who took Auntie Candy Cane away!”

Someone shuffled on their hooves. I turned to the blackboard. Candy Cane had gone stiff. She gave Hops a strange, knowing look, one ear cocked and the other pinned against the side of her head.

“Candy Cane, are you okay?” I whispered.

She blinked and turned her gaze upon me … no, through me.

“She’s seen what they do to people … Auntie knows,” Hops said, quietly. She looked up at Candy Cane. “Haven’t you, auntie? They do bad things to ponies, that’s why we can’t play outside anymore.”

I could hear her breaths, her shallow breaths as she ran a trembling hoof through her mane.

“Yes … yes, bad … bad things,” she said, softly, her wide eyes fixated at something that wasn’t there.

I got to my four hooves and started towards her. She flinched and took a step back, bumping her flank into the chalkboard.

I chewed on my lower lip and asked, as delicately as I could, “Candy Cane?”

The mare shook her head, slowly.

Not at me. She couldn’t hear me.

“Oh come on, Hops.” Doodle sighed, turned to me, and added, “She doesn’t know what she’s blabbering on about. The Palominos aren’t the boogiemares – they’re not just gonna snatch you up off the streets!”

I pursed my lips, trying to ignore them, while hoping that Candy Cane was trying to do the same. I could see it in her eyes. The horror.

She wasn’t. She couldn’t.

“Yes – they do! When the Palominos get angry, ponies go missing. I don’t want to go outside and disappear like the others!” Hops insisted. “It’s safer inside where they can’t hurt you.”

“Ugh,” Doodle groaned, waving her off. “I’ve been locked up in this place for ages. I need to get out here …”

Candy Cane touched a hoof to her throat, rubbing the matted indentation that used to be her bomb collar.

“I need to get out of here,” she whispered.

“If you go outside, we’ll never see you again, Doodle … I’ll never see you again,” Hops said, eyeing Candy Cane who stood there, fidgeting to herself in silence.

She looked like she was trying to stay afloat above a turbulent sea.

My eyes darted frantically between the two sisters and the panicking mare.

“You’re just being a scaredy pony,” Doodle sighed. “All you ever do is read books all day and study your stupid history.” She shook her head, and tapped her sister’s nose. “You need to get out more, Hops.”

“SHUT UP DOODLE!” she snapped. I swung my head over to hear the once quiet filly blow up, “Mom’s right! I know I’m right! Auntie knows too – that’s why she went missing for all those years!” She jabbed a hoof into her sister’s chest. “They took her away from us, and if you go out there, they’re going to take you away too!”

“GIRLS!” Candy Cane screamed, and they froze, turning towards her. A rivulet of sweat trickled down her brow as she stared back at us. “I-I think Doodle’s right. That’s enough class for today.” She feigned a smile, but it came out as an unsettling grin that made Doodle hug her sister close.

“Why don’t you two go and play in your room … I-I have … things … things I need to take care of,” she said weakly. She turned away as tears welled up in her eyes.

The two fillies exchanged troubled glances. Hops whimpered softly as she buried her face into her sister’s mane.

“What?” I started towards her as she made her way to the door. But she didn’t even lose a single step. “Candy Cane, where are you going?”

I reached out with a forehoof, trying to stop her – but she swatted my hoof away and darted around me.

“Hey!” But my cry flew past her deaf ears. Terror flashed across her face – her eyes, and she shoved me away from her and stormed outside, into the hall.

“What are you doing!?” I demanded.

I swore under my breath, clenching my teeth as she fled, galloping away from us. “Candy Cane!” I shouted, trailing behind her.

She reached her door, and threw a glance over her shoulder. I froze upon my hooves. Tears streamed down her cheeks as I met her distant, horrified stare.

“No more … I don’t want it … no more … please …” she babbled, shaking her head furiously as she wreathed the doorknob in her silvery magic.

“Candy Cane …” I started towards her, slowly. But she just kept shaking her head. “What’s gotten over you?” I asked, reaching out with a hoof.

Her eyes darted to my hoof – then to my face.

But she saw someone else.

Candy Cane panicked, flung her door open, and threw herself inside.

I dove after her. “CANDY CANE! WAIT –”

But she hurled the door into my face.

Stars exploded in my eyes as the force of the blow threw me into the floorboards with a jarring thump. “DAMNIT!” I groaned, clenching my muzzle as the girls came dashing after me.

“Son of a ... bitch!” I growled as I felt blood run down my muzzle.

“Mister Dawn!” Doodle cried out, Hops holding on for her dear life as she galloped down the hall. “Did she just hit you!?” she gasped, wide-eyed at the blood that was streaming down my nose.

The two rushed to my side as I let my head roll against the floorboards.

I bit my tongue, fuming; I could feel my headache slowly worming its way back into my skull.

Must’ve been the doctor’s orders – Candy Cane knew best after all. A door to the face kept the headaches away. I cringed as I felt a fire flare up inside my skull. If only that blow had been enough to knock me out.

I tried to stand to my hooves. But something heavy crashed inside her room.

Candy Cane let out an agonized scream.

“CANDY CANE!” I screamed.

I swore under my breath and threw myself at her door, trying desperately to turn the doorknob.

It was locked.

I banged a hoof against it.

“Candy Cane, are you okay!?”

The door quaked from the other side – and I stumbled away from it.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“Candy Cane!?”

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” she screamed – not at me. Not at us. Especially not at the fillies.

Candy Cane shrieked, pounding a hoof into the floor, “WHY CAN’T YOU ALL JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!?”

The girls huddled behind me as we listened to her horrified screams. She sobbed, crying amidst the sound of the pounding floorboards as she struggled against the monsters only she could see.

“No more …” she pleaded … “NO MORE!"

She was gone. The Candy Cane that had stood sentinel over my bedside for nearly three days – she was gone. All that time, she had been struggling to hold a roof over her head – but she slipped, and all of it had just came crashing down upon her.

My ears drooped as her screams echoed through my thoughts. I found myself inhaling a breath that wouldn’t enter my lungs. I watched the snow turn red around her as she screamed in agony.

“A-are you okay, Mister Dawn?” Hops asked quietly.

I blinked – and kept blinking as my ears perked at Candy Cane’s anguished cries. I touched a hoof to my muzzle, and it came away red with my blood.

“Yes … yes I’m okay,” I told them with a nasal moan, pressing a hoof against my nose and tipping my head back. I winced at a twinge that ignited at the base of my horn.

I swore once more – but all I could hear were her cries, drowning out the pain that was thrumming inside my head.

“I’m okay …” I murmured, looking up at the door she had locked behind her. “But she isn’t,” I said, loud enough for my own ears.

“What’s wrong with Auntie Candy Cane?” I heard Hops ask – a question I wasn’t sure I could answer.

I peered at her door in silence, listening to her muffled, strangulated cries, cries she was trying desperately – and failing to contain. I closed my eyes as she choked on her tears, her screams turning into suffocated sobs that echoed through my wilted ears.

'She needs you as much as you need her,' I heard Summer Smiles say.

"Candy Cane ..." I murmured, staring down at the floorboards. I remembered what Grifter told me – the name that had brought that mare to tears.

I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt.

They made her that way.

I glared at my hooves. I hoped Grifter suffered. I hoped he bled out, slowly, and that blackness didn’t take him until every last drop of his fucking blood had poured out of his veins.

“Look at what you did, Hops!” Doodle hissed, breaking my dazed stare. She gave Hops a dirty look, and the unicorn filly bowed her head, dejectedly.

My anger flared. Doodle caught my burning glare and looked away, eyeing the floor. She forced herself to meet my eyes, and straightened out, sheepishly.

I shook my head. I needed to get them away from there.

My gaze softened as Hops sniffled pitifully.

“Did … did she really mean that?” she asked in a tiny voice – and Candy Cane’s cries went silent.

I looked over my shoulder at the door that was still closed. All that we could hear now were her muffled, ragged breaths.

“No. She didn’t,” I whispered. Hops’ eyes welled up with tears. “It wasn’t your fault,” I reassured the filly, gently. I hesitated, but reached out with a hoof and rubbed her shoulder, gently. She just gazed up at me, teary-eyed. “Candy Cane’s just … she just needs some time alone. She’s … been through a lot, and she needs to rest.”

I felt that it was for the best. She'd let us in when she was ready.

“Come on. I’ll take you to your room,” I told Hops. I waited with strained patience until Hops mustered the courage to hold out her legs to me. I almost tried levitating her. With a tedious sigh, I bowed my head to the floor so she could wrap her legs around my neck before I lowered her onto my back.

I turned, and left Candy Cane’s locked door behind me.

Once inside the girls’ room, I set Hops down onto their bed and helped Doodle climb in with her. My ears perked as I could still hear, faintly, Candy Cane’s anguished sobs. They peered out into the hall, worriedly.

“She’s still crying …” Doodle murmured. “Why?”

I looked at them both for a moment, opening my mouth to reply. To explain to them where she’d been trapped all those years. But I just sighed, and closed the door. Candy Cane locked us out for the same reason she locked herself in.

To them, all they heard was a weeping mare. But to me, I heard a tortured mare who was coming apart at the seams.

I envied their innocence. They didn’t understand the things they said that set her off – because they’d never seen what the Palominos – what the wasteland could truly do to people.

They were things that Candy Cane probably wished they would never have to see – things she wished she had never seen. And Candy Cane had seen enough.

I clenched my jaw.

Candy Cane didn’t believe anyone could help her. Not even Summer Smiles. She believed that it’d be better if we didn’t learn about the things the Palominos – the things the wasteland truly did to her.

Just like how it would have been better if my friends and I hadn't opened those doors … if we hadn’t seen nightmare that was waiting for us outside.

The nightmare that Candy Cane had lived every day of her life.

The nightmare she was still living.

That was what Doodle and Hops should never have to see … what no one should ever have to see.

Those fillies deserved better than she did. Better than we all did.