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To Befriend the Night

by LucidTech

Chapter 15: Chapter Fifteen

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“So, now that the small talk is over, let’s get to the actual business, shall we?” The older mare smiled at three ponies sitting across from her. Upon the table rested two half-finished salads, one sandwich, and an empty plate decorated with several crumbs. The blank plate sat in front of the widely known DJ PON3, whom had bitten into her sandwich as fast as her blindness would let her. At the other end of the bench was her best friend and more, Octavia, whom had smiled at the antics of the DJ.

Between the two of them sat the reason for their current conversation: the small filly who could barely reach onto the table, Moon Light. The older mare was, of course, an orphanage volunteer by the name of Spyglass. They had enjoyed a degree of small talk prior, but as the announcement of the switch in topics met the air, the filly began to tighten herself together, attempting to disappear as much as possible.

“It’s quite the simple process,” Spyglass explained, seeing the sudden anxiety in the filly and trying to comfort it away. She was quite familiar with Moon Light and had come to feel sorry for her during her time at the orphanage. The filly hadn’t made any friends; she had purposefully avoided it, in fact. So when news reached the foster home that a couple wished to adopt her, the volunteers couldn’t help but be excited for her. “We just need a written confirmation from both the adults and the filly.” As she said those words, papers were slid across the table towards them.

Octavia hesitated, still not completely sure about the decision. She enjoyed Moon Light’s company, certainly, but she was worried about the fact that the filly didn’t really know them, a fear that was shared by Moon Light as well. Vinyl, however, immediately lifted the pen in the glow of her magic.

“Okay, then. Can you place the pen where I’m supposed to sign?” After that had been accomplished, the DJ signed the paper, though a bit sloppily. When she was done, she placed the pen in front of Octavia and waited.

The cellist started a staring contest with the pen, one she lost quickly, before shifting her gaze to Vinyl, who was smiling at her. Octavia gave an imperceptible nod and took a breath through her nose, using the same trick she does before performing in front of a crowd. Her mind cleared of doubt and fear. Then, with a cool head, she asked herself a simple question.

Do I want to adopt Moon Light? The answer was a resounding ‘yes’. It shouted from the middle of her being, from the middle of her soul. Happily surprised by the realization, she looked toward Vinyl again and saw something different in her smile: a sort of joy Octavia hadn’t seen in a long time, not since their first ‘date’ at least.

With a calm smile of her own, Octavia also signed the papers.

Then, the pen came to rest in front of Moon Light. All the adults looked to her expectantly. Except for Vinyl, who looked in the general direction of her. The child looked between them, then to the pen. Just as she moved forward to pick it up, a crashing sound echoed through restaurant, catching the attention of all the current denizens of the building. Somewhere nearby, Octavia thought she heard a stallion curse, but when she looked, she couldn’t find him.

Turning back to the sudden intruder, she watched a unicorn mare a year or two older than herself approach. After she passed a few tables, the other restaurant goers went back to what they had been doing before. Then, her eyes flicked towards her target and Octavia became aware that she was heading towards their table. But what frightened her most was the hungry look in the older mare’s eyes hidden behind the mask of a genial smile.

“Excuse me,” she said on arrival, then squeezed into the bar seat across from the trio, forcing Spyglass out of the center and towards the other end. After she had settled down, she let out a short breath.

“I’m sorry, is there something we can do for you?” Octavia said, smoothly concealing her annoyance with the busy body intruding on their group. So focused was her mind that she didn’t notice the mare across from her actually staring at Moon Light.

“Well, I’ve come to pick up my daughter. I’ve been looking for her forever, you know. Poor dear probably doesn’t even remember me.” The older mare batted her eyes, drawing Octavia’s attention to the disgusting amount of makeup trying it’s hardest to block the mare’s features from view. A frown had started to spread over Vinyl’s face, like a bad taste was in her mouth but was too polite to put her tongue out.

“Your daughter?”

“Yes, that’s her, right between you two.” She nodded towards Moon Light and Octavia looked towards Vinyl, who had her attention focused on the one claiming parental status of the filly.

Octavia was about to say something, but was cut off by Spyglass. “I’m sorry, but you understand you need to provide proof of your claim, yes?”

“Oh, of course.” The mare reached around and began to dig through a pair of saddlebags Octavia hadn’t even seen when she entered. “It’s actually a rather interesting story,” the mare began as she rummaged. “I went to my ex-husbands house and found a guard there. He directed me to the orphanage, and they directed me here. Quite the labyrinth of pathways, wasn’t it?” As she said that, the filly cringed. Octavia took notice and looked towards her, taking a moment to talk to Moon Light while her ‘mother’ looked for proof of her parenthood.

“Something the matter, Moon Light?” Octavia asked. A blush crossed the filly’s face.

“That was a bad use of the word ‘labyrinth’,” she said in a quiet tone. Octavia had to fight back a snicker. Moon Light picked up on the restraint and looked at the cellist with curious eyes. “Did I say something wrong?”

“I didn’t expect you to know that word, let alone when to use it. It’s a big word,” Vinyl said with a grin, picking up on the conversation with her sharp hearing.

“Hendrick told really big stories sometimes, and sometimes, he had to explain words to me,” Moon Light explained.

“Oh, I see,” Octavia said. She looked towards the ‘mother’ and frowned when she saw her start tossing papers to the side of her bag in a hasty attempt to find whatever proof she owned. “What do you know about your mom, Moon Light?”

“Not much. Dad always called her names and was mad at her for leaving, but I don’t remember at all.” Before Octavia could continue the conversation, an exclamation of success came from across the table and the cellist looked towards the mare expectantly.

“Here it is.” She proudly displayed a rather thick sheet of paper, as well as a small note. The paper got placed in the middle of the table and the note was passed to Spyglass. Between them lay a birth certificate, Moon Light’s specifically. It was clearly uncared for, creased extremely chaotically with a coffee ring decorating the upper right corner of it. Eventually, Spyglass put the note on the table as well, one attesting to the authenticity of the birth certificate and signed by the owner of the orphanage.

“Well...” Spyglass sounded reluctant to finish her statement. “It seems everything checks out, Ms...” She leaned over the birth certificate to get a better look. “Ms. Gloss?” The mother nodded and Spyglass leaned back into her seat.

“It was nice meeting with you,” Gloss said immediately and stood, signalling for Moon Light to follow her.

A feeling of deep despair shot through Octavia. Complete and utter hopelessness crippled her. She had only recently found her desire to have Moon Light as her adopted daughter, and she was already losing her, but the filly didn’t move to follow her mom.

“Where are we going to go?” Moon Light asked from her spot between Vinyl and Octavia. The DJ was looking towards the back of the restaurant with a peculiar look on her face while Octavia turned to look at Moon Light. Somewhere deep inside her, the cellist felt really, really bad.

“We’re going to Manehattan, dearie. Mommy has a friend there for you to meet.”

“But... I don’t want to go,” Moon Light said with an unsure tone. “Can’t we stay here?”

“No, dearie, you’re coming with me and we’re going to Manehattan.” The kindness in Gloss’s tone was fading quickly and her horn had started to glow.

“But, I don’t know anyone in Manehattan.” It was a respectful tone, even as hesitance bled through it.

Gloss’s patience snapped and she wrapped her daughter in a telekinetic glow. With a jerk of her head, she yanked her daughter from between the mares, levitating the writhing form of Moon Light towards the door, when a plate struck her in the back of the head.

The mother’s attention shattered and Moon Light fell towards the ground. Before the filly hit the ground, she was wrapped in another form of magic and calmly levitated back towards her place between the mares. A smile was splitting Vinyl’s face as her magic faded, her empty plate missing from its place in front of her.

If anger could boil water, Gloss would have been steaming. “What do you think you’re doing?!” she shouted at Vinyl.

“Well, I don’t know where you’re from, but here in Canterlot, you have to ask someone before you use magic on them,” Vinyl stated in a fake snooty tone. “So you really should just answer your daughter’s questions.” A cold tone of seriousness leaked from the words and Octavia’s mind was stirred awake. Sudden feelings of resistance surged through her as she turned a glare towards Gloss.

“She’s my daughter! I brought her into this world, so she’ll do what I say, even if that means working for my business!” Rage bubbled over in her voice and Octavia’s fires of emotion were fueled higher.

Gloss’s horn began to shine and Vinyl quickly drew from her own ethereal energies as well. The raw magic of the two began to collide in the air. A unicorn duel. However, this one was doomed to be interrupted.

“You don’t have a right to anything!” Octavia shouted, drawing a look of shock from Vinyl. She hadn’t seen the cellist this mad before. Gloss’s attention was shattered as well. “She’s her own being and she’ll do whatever she wants!” Moon Light looked towards Octavia with joyous eyes, but remained silent. Octavia’s mind went back to her memories of when she was young, back when she had wrecked her parents’ expectations.

Gloss gave a gasp and her face contorted into one full of rage. “I will not be told how to treat my child by some dirty earth pony fillyfooler BRAT!” The unicorn grasped Octavia’s bowtie in her magic and yanked it backwards, pulling Octavia against the back of the bench and cutting off her air.

Before anyone else could do anything to stop the crazy mother, a coffee cup smashed into the side of Gloss’s head, covering her face in the brown liquid and making her mascara start to run. The magic grip broke and she turned to find her new target.

“WHO—” she started, but was stopped as a hooded stallion ran into her side. With unbelievable speed, he had pinned her, and was about to strike her across the face.

“Hendrick!” Moon Light exclaimed, halting the pony’s assault. After Octavia regained her breath, she looked towards the hooded stallion and saw the familiar face of Hendrick underneath. He turned his gaze towards Moon Light. She gazed back with sad eyes, tears beginning to form in them. “Please... don’t...”

An unbearable silence hung over the restaurant.

But was shattered by the sound of a hoof crashing against a jaw.

Octavia looked in horror at the form of Gloss, running mascara and blood running from her open mouth. Hendrick stood above her, his face dark, a haunted expression covering every facet of it. Beneath that, however, Octavia saw a plea he couldn’t bring himself to utter, a certain darkness he wanted to hide.

Then, he left, his lips sealed just as tightly as when he had arrived. Everyone turned to watch him leave the building, except Moon Light, who turned away and curled up tightly. Octavia’s fires of rage died away as she heard the beginnings of a crying session building from the filly’s form.

Eventually, Gloss began to lift herself from the ground. She looked between Vinyl and Octavia, then to Moon Light, then Spyglass, and finally to all the angry faces around the bar facing her directly.

“Now come along, Moon Light. We’re leaving,” she said, trying to look dignified despite her horrible appearance.

“I’m afraid you don’t have a right to being her mother, anymore,” Spyglass said, her eyes cold. “After such a display as that, I don’t think you have a right to being anyone’s mother.” Then, the volunteer picked up the thick paper still resting on the table. “We thank you for giving us Moon Light’s birth certificate, however. This will speed the adoption process considerably.”

Gloss fumed, but realizing how outmatched she was, decided on a different course of action. She began to run towards the exit, her escape blocked by two thick-looking stallions.

“You realize,” the elder of the two began, “that threatening work on a child of her age is a fine?”

“And,” came the second, “that the mare you just tried to choke, as well as insulted, is one of the most well-known musicians in Canterlot?”

“Oh, and since Hendrick didn’t attack you until after you started choking her, the worse thing we can do to him is a minor fine for the coffee cup.” She looked around at the attendees of the bar, then started to conjure a teleportation spell.

A thick black ring immediately dropped around her horn, halting her magic. Defeated, Gloss let one of the stallions drag her out of the building. The other approached Octavia’s table.

“Are you all right, Miss Octavia?” She nodded and he made to leave.

“Wait.” Something didn’t seem right to her. “Are you being honest about Hendrick? Will he just get a fine?”

He glanced over his shoulder and shook his head solemnly, then left.

When Octavia turned around, Moon Light was still crying. But now, Vinyl had dropped herself to the eye level of the filly. With a smile, Vinyl lifted the purple glasses from her face and placed them on the filly’s nose.

Her tears came to a slow stop. Then, she looked at Vinyl through the purple lenses. After a moment, she turned to face Octavia as well. The sight of the massive glasses on the small filly made a grin break across Octavia’s face. The smiles of the adults proved contagious and before long, Moon Light had one of her own.

With her tears all but stopped, she sat up and grabbed the pen in her mouth. Both adults watched as she signed her name on the bottom of the paper. At this point, a stream of tears leaked from Octavia’s face and she brought Moon Light into a hug. Vinyl joined in almost immediately afterwards. Spyglass smiled from across the table and waited a moment before taking the paper and leaving the new family to their emotions.

In the back of Octavia’s mind, she couldn’t help but think about Hendrick. He had protected her; he seemed to have a penchant for helping people. At the same time, she felt horrible that he had hit Gloss when she was pretty much contained anyway. In just the past few days, she had seen his mental condition slowly worsening, and if he would only stop running for a second, his friends would be able to help him.

Yet, the pessimistic part of the cellist’s mind said, there’s no way in all of Tartarus that would happen, and he’s all the worse because of it. With her eyes closed, Octavia took a moment to make a wish, a wish that Hendrick’s spiral of self-destruction would be stopped by someone.

Because that was all she could do at this point. Wish.

Next Chapter: Chapter Sixteen Estimated time remaining: 22 Minutes
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