Nighttide sat outside the train station. Her eyes darted back and forth from all the different ponies coming and going. She was looking for someone, someone important, someone special. Someone she had not seen for several hours. She was looking for her friend.

She smiled at that thought, ten years ago if someone told her this would happen, that she would have a friend. She would have laughed herself to death. Now? Now it simply felt like she needed him, that she needed him around, like it was a requirement or something.

It was not that she needed him to get back to Canterlot and the home she was staying at. Most obviously she was a pegasus, easily able to fly the distance if she had too. That was not even counting her ‘other’ abilities. With those she could travel around the world if she needed too.

No, that was not it at all. She did not need him; she just wanted him to be here. She wanted him to be by her side. She… she was happy when he was around and sad when he was not. Her eyes went wide at that realization.

‘When did that happen? That wasn’t…’ her thoughts betrayed her. She almost found herself laughing about it. She was laughing about the absurdity of it all.

‘If they knew I’d be in s-‘ her thoughts were interrupted by a voice behind her.

“Hey.”

Nighttide turned around. She saw him then, the young stallion. Her heart broke upon seeing his face. It was obvious Taz had been crying. She supposed that was logical, he had just received the worst news someone could get at his age. He was a blank flank and would be for his entire life.

She did the only thing she could, the only thing that actually mattered. She did what her heart told her to do. She walked over to him and wrapped him in a hug. Her hooves rubbing his back as tears fell down her face. She could feel his breathing; he was doing his absolute best not to cry again.

“You can let it out,” Nighttide said as she cried for him, her outside tears were mirroring the ones he shed on the inside.

“No,” there was conviction in his voice. He spoke with the certainty of somepony that had made his mind up about it. “I’m done crying over this.” He really was, after his fight with Sunshine, Taz had cried for almost thirty minutes. He cried partly due to his permanent status as Prince Blank Flank, and partly for the loss of a friendship, one that he severed.

“Taz, I-“ the train whistle in the background killed any further conversation. Taz shook her off of him.

“We should get going, don’t want to be late getting home.”

“Sure,” there was not much she could say or do. Nighttide could only be there for him. Nighttide took one last look at the town and shook her head. She followed the young stallion into the train.

Watching him board the Train, Nighttide noticed something strange, something different about him. Taz seemed to be carrying himself slightly different when he walked. It was not anything obvious; she doubted that any outside observer watching would even notice, but she did.

He had a different aura around him, almost like the stallion had extra years added to him that had not been there this morning. She let another tear fall at that realization. This experience, that news, wherever he went, it had changed him.

The adversity of today had matured him. He was harder now, colder. Another tear fell from her eye. Taz, the playful little colt was gone. He had died when the Crusader King broke his heart.

A large part of Nighttide wanted to go kill Astelan. It wanted to skin that stallion alive for what he did, for the little colt he killed.

She almost found herself smiling at that thought.

Almost.

She would not do any of that. Never mind that it would be the dumbest thing she could do and get her in more trouble with her ‘family’ than she cared for. Regardless how good it might make her feel, she knew that this was not Astelan’s fault. If anything she was thankful to the stallion for being so direct, for making it final.

It may hurt, it may be the worst news Taz could have heard, but now he could heal and move past it. Had he left Taz with hope that it might one day come in; Taz never would have stopped trying. He would have spent his life thinking he was simply a failure, that the problem was that he was just too stupid for not being able to get it when everyone else around him had one.

This way, he at least knew it was not his fault. That the problem was not him, but it was simply that his ability would not let him get one. It may have been devastating, but at least now it was done.

So Nighttide did not smile, she could not, not at a time like this. Yes it sucked, but now they could move past it. She just had to help him with the fallout and picking up the pieces.

“You want to come over for dinner?” Taz looked up and asked her the question.

Taken aback by the sudden question, Nighttide jerked her head up. “What?”

“I asked if you wanted to come over for dinner,” Taz repeated the question as they both found their seats.

“Will she be there?” Nighttide’s eyes went wide as she asked the question.

Taz sighed, loudly. “Nighttide, I’ve told you a million times there is nothing to fear from Princess Luna. She hasn’t been Nightmare Moon in over fifty years. Heck that was before we were even born. You can’t tell me you’re still afraid of that old story.”

“Sure, mister teddy bear,” Nighttide said with a small smile.

Taz glared at her. “You said you wouldn’t ever tell anyone,” he said through gritted teeth.

“And I haven’t. I’d never break your trust like that. I’m just pointing out that we all have things that we’re afraid of. You got yours and I got mine. That’s the thing about fears, they’re not always rational.”

Taz just sighed, “I think you two would get along fine, if you’d only give her a chance you’d find out there is nothing to be afraid of.”

“I know, I… I… I just can’t, not right now. One day, maybe, just not now.” Nighttide looked down at her hooves. Taz grabbed ahold of them.

She felt it again, that strange feeling she got when he was happy. It made her happy, when he was hurting, she hurt. Somehow him wanting her to be happy, made her want to be happy. Nighttide almost laughed. “I thought I was supposed to be cheering you up.”

“We’re friends; we can cheer each other up,” Taz said with a small smile.

“How do you think the others will take it?” Nighttide asked the unasked question. While she had little doubt that Rainbow, Twilight, Ana, Starlight, and Night would be supportive of him. That still left Blaze, Flash, Vela and Luna-forbid, Ataxia to deal with.

Based on her time around them, the latter was the one that caused her the most concern.

As soon as she asked, Nighttide wished she had not. Taz’s face lost the smile he had. He let go of her hoof and leaned back in his seat. “I know Ana will be there for me,” somehow, when he mentioned Ana first, it caused Nighttide’s heart to skip a beat.

“Starlight won’t care. Of course my moms will be supportive. Blaze and Flash will give me some light teasing, but I can always beat them up if they take it too far,” he smiled at that last part.

“Vela… I’m not sure about. You know how she is. She’ll either not care or she’ll never let it go.”

“Well if she tries something, tell her I’ll whoop her flank,” Nighttide said with a grin.

Taz laughed, he knew from their wrestling matches that Nighttide could not fight to save her life. Vela was a scrapper though.

“What about Princess Ataxia?” Nighttide asked as Taz managed to skip over the one she was the most worried about.

“Buck me, I forgot about her,” Taz’s eyes went wide.

“Just talk to Night first.”

“Yeah, ‘cause she has such great control over her wife.” he rolled his eyes sarcastically. “You sure you won’t come with me? I could use all the help I can get.”

She looked down and shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’d be more than happy to spend the night next time Nightmare Moon isn’t there, but I… I can’t… I just can’t.”

To her surprise the strangest thing happened. Taz moved to the seat next to her. He held her head up and wiped a tear from her eye. A tear she was not even aware she shed. “I’m sorry, I’ll quit asking.”

He felt bad about opening up this line of questioning again. Nighttide told him about how her family would always scare her with stories about Nightmare Moon, and about the event on Nightmare Night that would forever go unspoken of again.

He placed her head on his chest. Just letting it rest there while his hoof slowly trailed down her mane.

They stayed like that the entire train ride. The two got some looks from the other ponies in the train, but Taz ignored them. As a prince, he was more than used to the attention. For Nighttide’s part, she did not even notice. She had no idea why, but this just felt… safe?

Was that the word? Nighttide did not know. She only knew that she wanted this moment to last forever.

Sadly, all good things.

The train whistle caused the two of them to wake up. Taz’s cheeks were red as soon as he realized just how they had fallen asleep. During the train ride she fell asleep with her head on his chest, at some point of time his head must have drooped down into her mane.

He did not want to wake her, but he also did not want to be caught like this. Sadly, both of those events were too late to stop.

“Hey, you two!” A female sing-song voice caught his attention. Worse, it was one he recognized.

Nighttide glanced up at the pony that just spoke. “Hey Starlight, what’s going on?” she yawned.

Starlight was on the other side of them. Despite how much she did not want anyone to believe she cared about her looks, it was obvious to Nighttide that Starlight put a lot of effort into keeping up the appearance of not caring about her looks. It was a shame, with her blue coat and short rainbow mane, Starlight could be quite the looker if she tried.

Her cutie mark even fit her name; it was a constellation of stars in the shape of a large tree.

“It’s not what it looks like,” Taz said the words, knowing that Starlight would not buy them for an instant.

“Oh, I’m sure it’s more.”

“Starlight, what are you doing here?” Taz was in no mood to play this game.

“Lessons let out early, so I figured I’d come and pick you up. Why? You don’t want to be seen with your little niece?”

Taz groaned, they were all practically the same age yet she felt the need to point that out. Although something she just said dawned on him. “Wait? Mom let you out early? Is she sick?”

“No, there was a problem…” Starlight paused before going on any further.

“What happened?” Taz moved Nighttide off his lap and stood up. He was a big stallion for his age, easily taller than Starlight.

“Nothing major, just an issue with Ana,” Starlight tried to deflect. “She wasn’t feeling well and had to leave early,” she lied. She had pinkie promised to keep her sister’s secret. Although, Starlight did not really believe it was a secret.

“Is she ok?”

“Yeah, she’s fine now. We would have gone back but Twilight went out flying with Rainbow, no pony has seen either of them for a while.”

Taz laughed at that. His mom was always a stickler for following rules and keeping to a schedule, unless Rainbow got involved. Only she could make Twilight relax; only she had that power.

“Well, come on love birds; let’s get back to the palace.”

“Actually I got to head home, my family should be back in town later today,” Nighttide interrupted Taz before he could shout at his niece for what she just said.

“When am I gonna get to meet them anyway? It seems like we always hang out at my place,” Taz asked. They always stayed at his place, always hung out at the palace. He never got to stay over with her for a night.

Nighttide bopped Taz on the noise. “Soon, you know they spend most of their time traveling. Besides, the palace is a LOT nicer than our little house,” without giving him a second to reply, she kissed him on the forehead and flew off out of the train.

For that alone Taz considered turning his ability against her, of making her pay for that. He decided against it, for starters he was sure Starlight would rat him out if he used his ability maliciously against another pony.

Taz simply walked past Starlight and smacked her muzzle with his tail in an effort to get the grin off her face. He was sure there would be teasing about this later on.

He was right.

“So, when is the wedding?” Starlight asked when they were almost home.

“Shut up.”

“I just think you two would be so cute together.”

“Shut up.”

“C’mon, you two have matching coats. She’s obviously into you. Just…” she placed a hoof on his shoulder and turned him around. “Answer me this one question. Why not?”

“Why not what?” Taz sighed. When Starlight got this way, you just had to go with it. Her mind would not rest until it figured out whatever problem it was working on.

“Why don’t you like her, you know, like that?”

Taz looked up into the sky; he could not get out of this now. Unless… “I’ll answer your question on one condition.”

“You pinkie promise to answer it truthfully and sure.” Starlight said.

“There are NO follow up questions, I’ll pinkie promise to answer it truthfully if you pinkie promise to let it go when you hear the answer.”

Starlight nodded, and then they both proceeded to go through the age-old motion at the same time. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Because I love some pony else,” Taz said matter-of-factly and turned to walk the rest of the way to the palace.

“But… you… I… what…” Taz had to laugh; he had never managed to leave Starlight speechless before. “You can’t do that!”

“Do what?”

“You can’t drop that bombshell on me and not tell me more!”

“I think I just did.”

“Yeah bu-“

“Uh no, you pinkie promised remember?” Taz had her dead to rights.

That one sentence deflated all the air in Starlight’s tires. “I hate you,” she said sarcastically.

“I know.”

They walked in silence after that, until Starlight could not take it anymore and bumped into the colt. This of course led to him bumping her back. It was not long until both of them were smiling and giggling.

“Thank you,” Taz said out of nowhere.

“For what?”

“For not asking,” he gestured to his blank flank.

She looked at it and nodded. “Honestly, I always thought that might be a possibility. I just kept it to myself. I didn’t want to invite trouble. When I saw you on the train, it confirmed all my fears.”

“Sweet Luna you’re just like…” he stopped himself.

“Just like who?”

“No one.” Taz tried to cover his lax comment. It did not work.

“Uh no, who am I just like?”

“Just a fr-“

“I know all your friends,” Starlight cut him off. The mare second guessed what he was about to say.

“I guess that’s true. Now,” even though Taz said the last word under his breath, Starlight still heard it. Her ears flopped down; her tail drooped at that news.

It did not take a genius to read the subtext of that line. Taz did have a friend that she did not know about, or at least, he use to have one.

Watching him walk away was painful to the young unicorn. She thought of something, something her grandma told her. “You know, grandma always said that friendship is magic.”

“Yeah-yeah, I know what my mom always said about it.” He rolled his eyes at that lecture all over again.

“Well it’s too bad you weren’t paying attention then. Twilight said that it’s magic because friends forgive each other. When you have a friend, you accept them for all the good parts, and the bad,” she teleported directly in his path to cut him off; he had no choice but to listen to her now. “You can’t expect your friends to be perfect, Taz. Even the best of us will stumble from time to time. If your friend did something bad, and that’s the reason you’re not friends anymore, maybe you should look at yourself. Figure out what sort of friend you are that you can’t forgive them.”

“Some things can’t be forgiven,” Taz said with a tear in his eye.

Starlight walked over and hugged him. “I know, but you need to figure out if what they did was really that bad, or are you just making it into something that bad.”

She let him go and turned around to head into the palace. She paused and left him with one more line, “I don’t know who your friend is Taz, but I know you. You never would’ve been friends with them in the first place if they were that bad. Just… just ask your heart what the right thing to do is,” she smiled as she saw it, that look he would always have when he figured something out.

“You may never have a cutie mark, but you’re the best uncle I could ask for. I think you already know the answer.”

Taz watched her go with a smile on his face. He wiped the tear from his eye. ‘Dammit Starlight, I was so angry at him too. How did you do that?’

He resolved that the next time he saw Sunshine; he’d apologize and make amends. Although, Sunshine would have to get over him hanging out with Nighttide, that was not going to stop any time soon.

…………………………

Nighttide pushed open the door to her ‘home’ and walked inside. In a word, it stank. There was water damage everywhere, mold growing all around, and cobwebs lined the walls. Not that she actually stayed here. She just found it useful to have an address in Canterlot.

There had been a few times in the past eight years when Taz or one of his moms would ask where she stayed, they would ask her about her history, or Taz would ask to come over.

“As if,” Nighttide said to no pony in particular. She would never bring the colt here, but she did have to register an address for school. That part still bugged her. That she had to go to school at all was humiliating enough, but she also had to keep up the facade.

Nighttide hated having to pretend that ‘he’ was her parent, her dad, her true dad could never simply walk into a public building, heck he could not walk into Canterlot without giving everything away. No, she had to pretend that Timespire was her dad.

Of her two ‘uncles’, it had to be him. Of course it did.

Not that she liked Mindsink all that much either, but still… that would have been preferable, especially as Timespire was the one that caused her to be this young in the first place.

As she walked in, Nighttide realized something, she was not alone. It took her a few second to figure out who was watching her. She smiled at that realization.

“Using my own trick against me?”

Nothing happened.

“You can come out now, Dayspring. I know it’s you.”

A figure walked into the room. Dayspring smiled at her. “I figured turnabout is fair play.”

“I’m so not in the mood,” Nighttide turned away from him.

“Oh? And you were so lovey-dovey on the train; I figured that you’d be in a happy mood.”

That legitimately surprised Nighttide, she had no idea that Dayspring had been watching her the whole time.

“Last time we spoke, I told you that interference would not be tolerated. Did you come here because you want me to rat you out?”

“You won’t rat me out,” When Dayspring said those words, it was with certainty, almost as if it were simple fact.

“What makes you say that?” she turned to him, already tiring of this game.

“Because, then you’d be revealed for what you are, you wouldn’t be able to be around Taz anymore.”

Nighttide felt her heart jump into her throat at that thought. “What makes you th-“

“Don’t lie to me, I’ve seen you, I know how you feel. You’re in love with him.”

“I am no-” she tried to shout, Dayspring cut her off.

“Yes you are. You’d never do anything to jeopardize that. However, you’re planning something, or if not you, your masters are planning something. It’s something that will hurt him, something that will use him and break his heart. You know this, don’t you?”

“I’d never tel-“

“I didn’t ask you to tell me. I may not know what you are, I may not know who you serve, but I know who you love. You’ve fallen for my brother,” when Dayspring said that line, it was not a question. “It’s conflicting, isn’t it? You’re afraid of losing him. You know what you have to do, you know what you’re told to do, but it doesn’t match what you want to do.”

The young mare paused, speechless. Her confusion turned to anger as she glared daggers at the stallion in the room with her.

“This wasn’t part of the plan, was it? He was supposed to fall for you, not the other way around.”

Nighttide was really, really beginning to hate this stallion. He was far too smart for his own good. Around the outside of the room, shadows began snaking around; they were metamorphosing into something, responding to her unspoken will.

“What oh what are your masters going to do when they find out?” Dayspring shook his head.

More and more shadows snaked the walls and ceiling, all of them out of sight. They were all converging just behind the stallion.

“The discordance between what we know and what we feel can tear even the best of us apart.” When he spoke that last line, it was not accusatory, it was not with malice. Rather, he spoke with understanding, almost like he was sympathizing with her.

She hated that the most. Nighttide’s eyes flashed black and the shadows behind Dayspring attacked. They sought to impale the stallion with a hundred different spears.

………………………………………

As Starlight walked into her room, it did not surprise her in the least to see Ana curled up on her bed in the fetal position, sulking. Ataxia had tried her best, for three hours she used every trick she knew to cheer up her daughter, it did not work.

You cannot fix a broken heart by giving it cakes and ice-cream. In the end, Ataxia had no choice but to admit defeat and go to bed. Ana was left just as she was: A useless wreck.

Starlight hated thinking about her sister in those terms, it was wrong on more levels than one. Sadly, the analogy just fit.

She walked in the room and jumped up her sister’s bed. Starlight began lightly stroking her sister’s mane, seeking to give her some comfort. It always amazed her just how soft Ana’s mane was. Her long, beautiful purple mane was always so soft, always so well kept. It matched her dark blue coat perfectly.

Her mane’s texture made some sense; Ana’s cutie mark was of a long mane with a golden hairbrush running through it. Ana’s magic was directly related to style, to grooming. It was her special talent after all.

Ana mumbled something in her pillow when Starlight ran her hoof through her mane. She could not make it out, but she did not need too. It was definitely something along the lines of ‘go away’.

Starlight sighed at that, “You should have come with me.”

More mumbling was her only reply, Starlight almost laughed as she knew exactly what her sister said without having any comprehension of her actual words.

“Yes she was on the train with him, but he would’ve appreciated you being there anyway.”

More mumbling

“Yes I know you don’t like her and you didn’t want to go because you didn’t want to see her.”

More mumbling

“Yes he made it back safely.”

More mumbling

“He doesn’t have one.”

As soon as she said those words, Starlight knew what would happen next. Ana shot up and looked at her.

“What do you mean he doesn’t have his cutie mark?!”

“Exactly as I said, he doesn’t have one.”

“The Crusading King failed?”

Starlight shook her head. “No, he doesn’t have one because he can’t have one. His special talent won’t let him have one.”

Ana started crying again. “Taz! He must be devastated! I gotta… I gotta….” She jumped out of bed and ran to the mirror, seeking to make herself presentable.

“You gotta calm down.”

“Calm, calm, I AM CALM!”

“Obviously,” Starlight rolled her eyes. “Listen, he’s trying to move past it, not be reminded of it. I won’t stop you from going to him, but please, for the love of Luna, don’t make him relive it. If he brings it up you can talk to him about it. Just don’t force him to talk about it.”

Ana simply nodded her head in agreement, in truth Starlight suspected that she just did that to get her to shut up, that Ana had not heard a word she said. Her sister threw down her brush; it was getting her nowhere fast, and fast is what she wanted.

She shut her eyes and concentrated her magic on her mane, tail, and face. It took a LOT out of her, but in a flash of blue magic, her hair was fixed. Ana got up and ran out the room, leaving a very flustered Starlight behind.

“They should have stuck with your first name,” Starlight sighed as she plopped down on her bed, before rolling over and picking up a book to read. She remembered that conversation all too well. Years ago, Starlight asked Ataxia why Ana was named Ana.

Ataxia’s reply stuck with her all this time. “Because Night wouldn’t let me name her Anarchy.”

Apparently they had compromised.

“That name would've been much more fitting.” Starlight said to no pony in particular.

………………………………………

A flash of light temporarily blinded Nighttide, as for the first time in forever, the house she called ‘home’ was lit up, albeit not by actual light. When she regained her vision, the stallion was still in the room, he was still looking at her with that same look in his eyes.

Sympathy, he felt compassion for her.

She hated him, she hated everything about him. Worse, she hated him for reflecting her own feelings right back at her.

“What are you even doing here?!” Nighttide yelled the words, screaming just like a teenager would at a stubborn parent that was telling them something they did not want to hear.

Dayspring’s expression never changed, the power drained from his horn. In the blink of an eye he had neutralized all the shadows she summoned, he did it without even turning to look at them.

He sighed, somehow that just made Nighttide feel worse.

“Consider this a professional warning. I haven’t been lax these last eight years and I will be watching you, I will be watching both of you closely from now on. Taz considers you a friend and nothing I say or do will change his mind. When it happens, when you or your masters spring your trap, I will be there. I will stop you, regardless of what it costs me.”

“Get out,” Nighttide mumbled the words.

“What was that?”

“Get out!” she screamed. “Get out, get out, get out!” The rage that had been building in her chest overloaded. She yelled with all the force she could muster, unable to physically eject the unicorn from her house. With that display he just put on, Nighttide doubted she would win against him even at full power, so she fell back to the old adage, yelling.

Dayspring shook his head, “I’m going,” He turned around to leave out the front door. He stopped right before leaving and said one last thing. “You know, I actually feel sorry for you. I don’t know what they have over you, but I can tell you’re not all bad. Whenever I look on your face when you’re with my brother, I can see that much. Whatever they have on you, is it really worth what’s going to happen? Is it worth you having to break your own heart?”

“GET OUT!” She bucked an old table at him. The wood shattered on a purple shield around the unicorn.

Dayspring turned his head and left. As soon as he was out the door he teleported away, back to wherever he came from. The cool breeze from the evening air blew through the house; it caressed the fur on Nighttide’s back in all the wrong ways. Nighttide found herself in a rage, she began kicking and destroying every odd piece of furniture that was left in the old abandoned house.

When it was over, when there was nothing left worth destroying, nothing left to take her rage out on. She went with the only option left to her. She cried.

“Mum’s worth it,” she sniffled, trying to convince herself of the truth more than anyone else. After all, there was no one else there.

‘Is it worth you having to break your own heart?’

His final words stayed with her. After all, the truth has a way of penetrating you to your core.

Author's Notes:

Fear is a driving force for all of us, It can save our lives or cause us to do the dumbest of things.