Tabitha emerged from Remedy's office. On some levels, she felt better for the trip, but it had brought up as many questions as answers. She decided that was par for the course. She was in a land of magical talking horses. She should be happy she hadn't yet collapsed into a pile of misery and insanity from the disconnect between what was once normal and what had become commonplace.

On the other hand, she did still have her building. It was her anchor. Even if the rest of the world burnt to ash, she knew how to handle that one thing. As far as the building was concerned, the move hadn't been so awful.

Heck, they had more tenants than they had been dealing with for a while. The repairs were solid and still being done, making the building more and more healthy instead of the slowly running down state it had been suffering.

Nothing like a little pony magic to really make an old building young again. She wondered how much of the effort could be ascribed to pony magic or just skill and ingenuity, but the pieces they had repaired were healed as if they had never suffered the slings of time and entropy.

Her comforting thoughts of home and its sunny outlook were interrupted as a pony wearing the front-half of a nurse's outfit came rushing into the building she was in, horn shining and a cart being hauled behind her.

Running alongside the cart was Bubbles. On the cart was Dark Vision. "What the--"

The nurse charged past Tabitha. Bubbles at least slowed to speak, "Hey boss. Dark here was fighting one of your creepy crawlies."

The fact that Bubbles was intact was good. "Did you come along after?"

"What? Nah. Pfft. I was there. I fought it too! Just one of us couldn't handle the pressure." She sat down. "Well, she's here, so that part's done.

Tabitha glanced in the direction the cart had gone. "Is she alright?"

"Who, Dark? Sure." Bubbles made a dismissive wave of a hoof. "As if a little thing like this would take her down for long. Us guards are made of tough stuff, right?"

Tabitha had to smile at that. She felt Bubbles was reaching for a compliment, so she offered it. "Not every guard, but that's why I only got the better ones." She settled on her haunches. "So, what happened?"

Bubbles raised a brow. "We kicked its flank around is what." She snorted before she started. "Oh! More specific than that, fine. Some crazy shadowy thing tried to crash the party and we kicked it out. That's about it."

"Shadowy thing?"

"Fwoosh, all the lights got dim, and it talked like it climbed out of Tartarus just to say hello. We said 'good bye' instead and gave it the boot."

That was worrying, though it was good it had been handled. "Did it say anything besides 'die die die' or something?"

Bubbles frowned a bit. "It kept going on about 'Caretaker'. I wasn't paying too much attention besides kicking its flank."

Tabitha stiffened. "I'm the Caretaker."

"Are you? I thought you were the boss." Bubbles shrugged. "So it was upset we weren't you, and then the fight happened."

Tabitha half-turned towards where the cart had rushed to. "Are they going to Remedy?"

"You know him? Is that why you're here?" Bubbles raised a brow. "You don't look much sick to me, boss. Look, Dark's in good hooves. We're just cluttering up their lobby." She walked past Tabitha towards the street. "We got places to be."

Tabitha opened her mouth to argue, but she did have places to be. She caught up with Bubbles. "I have a feeling the dark thing will come back."

"Oh? Big and warty didn't come back and he seemed plenty pissed about the whole thing."

Tabitha shook her head. "Words have power, as we've learned from Spring. I kicked the troll out. I'm the Caretaker. Nobody with authority evicted the shadow thing." She wobbled a hand. "It's just a theory, but I bet it'll come back. I bet it'll be ticked off too."

Bubbles pawed at the ground as she walked. "Do ya need me to kick it out again?"

Tabitha smiled. It was good to see her guard was loyal, despite their troubles. "I think I just need to talk to it. If it can talk, it can, in theory, be reasoned with. Hell, maybe it just wants a room?"

"You'd let it?!" Bubbles rolled her eyes. "You're gonna scare away all the othas."

Tabitha shrugged. "And I'm a big scary... thing... Heck, I've done worse than it has, and you're still there. I owe you more, and I owe it, whatever it is, a chance."

"Sure sure." Bubbles waved a hoof at the situation. "You do that. I'll be there to save your back end when it explodes in yer trustin' face. Now, the way I see it, I've worked super hard today. Time for hazard pay!"

Really? "Really?"

She thrust a hoof at a fancy-looking Italian place, even if Tabitha guessed it wasn't called Italian. "I'm going to eat like a queen, and you're payin'. Fair's fair, right?"

Tabitha turned in her steps, moving towards that place. "Sure, you earned that." Besides, she hadn't tried that one out yet, and it looked like it would be delicious.

Sweetie Drops sat at the side of the street, letting out a slow sigh. Her marefriend had been taken away. She should have just gone on home. She should have just gotten on with her life. She had a shop to run. She had friends that...

The thought of friends made her sniffle. There was one friend above all the others. The friend that could make her blood pressure rise on demand. The friend that infuriated her at times. Her truest, best friend.

"Why did I go along with that?" she grumbled to herself, imagining what terrible fates awaited her marefriend, dragged off to Canterlot.

Maybe she should go to Canterlot too? She could support that stupid Lyra. She could--What was that? Sweetie blinked as a strange half-human walked past her a small distance away. The thing had a unicorn with her, and was headed into a restaurant. Did humans like collecting unicorns?

She went hot a moment, irrationally furious at the human that had been involved in her Lyra's vanishing.

It wasn't fair... It wasn't fair to her, or the human. Sweetie got to her hooves, legs shaking a little. Maybe that human could help set some things straight.

She smiled to herself a little. Lyra would never forgive her if she let the human just go by without a challenge. She owed her moronic marefriend that much at least.

Sweetie trotted in, assaulted with an array of delectable aromas. She wasn't that hungry. Her emotions didn't let her become properly famished, even if her belly rumbled a little in complaint. She could see that half-human seated across from the unicorn. Both were chatting, but she couldn't hear them over the din of the room from so far away.

She took a step towards them and a smiling pony got in her way. "Excuse me, ma'am? Would you like to be seated?"

Sweetie shook her head. "I can see my party from here, um, thanks." She gave an insincere smile before she moved to skirt around the pony and make her way towards the table. She had things to discuss.

The monster from the second floor strode confidently past the ponies that saw only a stern unicorn. That image suited it just fine. It moved up the steps back into the home it had chosen, only to feel a dark whisper tickle across its senses.

It had a visitor. "Show yourself," he invited. It wasn't angry. It had little fear. The presence had power, but not too much for it to handle.

The darkness gathered into a rough sphere. "You are not the Caretaker."

"I am not," agreed the yeti easily. "Do you seek her?"

"The Caretaker is female? This matters little. Where is she?"

"Not here." The yeti made a wave. "You are in the way."

"I care not if I am--" The rude answer was met with force. With a sudden shove, the yeti slammed the shadow aside roughly.

"Good bye." The monster moved to walk past. Its way no longer barred, the anger seemed to just fade.

"Wait!" The shadow moved quickly to its side. "Please, assist." The monster ignored the shadow. "Fine, a deal!"

That stopped the monster. "What will you offer?"

The shadow swirled in place a moment. "A boon."

"Big words. I have no assurance any boon you could offer would be of benefit."

That annoyed the shadow in an angry twisting of its form. "Don't dismiss me so easily!"

"One question."

It was a pitiful price, or so the shadow decided, but it was all that could be asked for. "Very well... For one boon, who's duration shall be no longer than a month. Where can I find the Caretaker?"

The yeti raised a clawed hand, though the shadow likely saw a pony's hoof, since it was no resident. The monster pointed to Tabitha's office. "She is most commonly there, though she is not now. You will find her if you wait there. Good bye."

The shadow watched the yeti march past to the elevator. Just one question... It would do. The shadow moved quickly for the office. It would wait, if it had to.

It had things to discuss.