As Celestia’s sun began to fade into the horizon and give way to the gentle darkening of Luna’s rising night, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Babs Seed performed their best superhero impressions to a crowd of none. With her Cutie Mark Crusader cape billowing behind her, Scootaloo launched herself forward in an effort to mimic her favorite masked mare.

“Never fear, Mare Do Well is here! To save the—“ Scootaloo was interrupted by a loud WHACK! as she crashed into the Apple family’s barn, falling into a mud puddle instead, her flight skills insufficient enough to make the feat truly memorable in a positive way.

“Scootaloo! Are you okay?” Sweetie Belle rushed over to Scootaloo’s side, Babs and Apple Bloom in tow.

Seeing stars, Scootaloo lifted her head from the mud, shaking it off as she did so. “I’m… okay…”

Apple Bloom face-hoofed as the disoriented filly tried to get up, only to fall back into the mud. Babs giggled quietly, bringing a hoof to cover her mouth at Sweetie Belle’s disapproving gaze.

Sweetie Belle pulled Scootaloo out of the mud, shaking her head. “Well, it looks like we’ll need to take another bath!”

“Pfft, are you crazy? We’re Cutie Mark Crusaders! We don’t worry about a little mud!” Scootaloo flapped her tiny wings into the air triumphantly. “Besides, what would Rainbow Dash do in this situation? Probably not head to the spa!”

“Wait, who’s Rainbow Dash?” Babs asked.

“You’ve never met THE Rainbow Dash?!” Scootaloo gasped in disbelief while Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom rolled their eyes.

“Um, gals, it looks like it’s starting to get dark,” Apple Bloom said, halting the fangirlish outburst that she could see swelling in Scootaloo’s eyes.

The fillies looked above them to see that a few stars had begun to shine through the blanket of the purple-orange dusk, painted by the hooves of Luna herself. For a moment, they said nothing, watching as the sun slowly began to set below the horizon, disappearing into the void where only Celestia would be able to find it.

“APPLE BLOOM! BABS!” A shout broke their stargazing.

The girls turned to see Applejack and Big Mac standing on the front porch of the Apple family home, Granny Smith presumably already inside and tucked in for the night. Applejack trotted towards the four little superheroes, a smile on her face and Stetson absent from her head. “It’s gittin’ close ta bedtime now. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, would ya like me ta walk you girls home, or do y'all think you'll be alright?”

Scootaloo tapped her chin. "Um..."

“We can walk home together!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, her eyes lit up at the prospect. “Right, Scootaloo?”

Blinking slowly, eying Sweetie with caution, Scoots said, “Uh, yeah, sure, we should be fine. We’re Cutie Mark Crusaders, after all!”

Grinning, Applejack said with a chuckle, “Well, ain’t that just precious. Y’all be careful now, ya hear? Holler if you need anything!”

“Will do, Applejack! Come on, Scootaloo, I’ll race you to Rarity’s!”

Apple Bloom and Babs waved Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle goodbye as they took off into the sunset, pegasus and unicorn heading towards Carousel Botique and hopefully not too much more adventure.

It had been a long, tiring day, from the sabotage-turned-rescue at the parade, to the initiation of Babs Seed as the fourth Cutie Mark Crusader, and, finally, to the games at Sweet Apple Acres the young crusaders had played until the line between day and night began to blur.

Babs yawned, which caused Apple Bloom to yawn also, her eyelids beginning to feel heavy.

Applejack laughed. “Come along now, you two. Ah reckon it’s time for bed.”

Slowly, the two fillies followed Applejack back to the farmhouse, tails swishing in the breeze that began to roll in with the clouds and stars.

~

Apple Bloom set to work making the spot on the floor she’d called “bed” for the past week and half comfortable, fluffing the hay with her hooves and straightening the newspaper out from its tangled mess of the night before. Babs was downstairs taking a bath, and although she was sure that Babs would surely return the bed to its rightful owner, Apple Bloom didn’t mind the idea of sleeping on the floor one more night. Babs was her guest, after all.

In spite of their mutual confessions of wrongdoing and Babs's initiation and inclusion into the bumbling little group (cape and all), Apple Bloom still could not help but feel awful about what she and her friends had done to Babs.

Ponyville would be talking about the parade incident for days, if not weeks. Though Babs would be back home in Manehatten, the whispers and laughter would plague Apple Bloom with guilt for some time. She hadn’t felt this bad about anything she had done since the wretched Gabby Gums incident.

“At least Babs won’t be here while Ponyville is still laughin’ 'bout it,” Apple Bloom whispered, the bed on the floor at long last comfy enough to her liking. She laid her head on the pile of hay and spread the newspapers over her. “She don’t deserve ta be made fun o' like that. She’s got enough on her plate at home…”

Just about to close her eyes, Apple Bloom’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of little hooves trotting up the stairs. Babs musta got done wit’ her bath early.

As the door to her bedroom began to creak open, part of Apple Bloom wanted to feign sleep and forego any conversation with her cousin. She wasn’t exactly sure why. The other half of her was more forceful, and it rolled her over to smile at Babs Seed as she entered. “Hey, Babs.”

“Apple Bloom, why are youze sleepin’ on the floor?” Babs asked, surprised by the familiar sight of the makeshift bed. “Youze can sleep in your bed, youze know…” A hoof dug at the unforgiving wooden planks below, as Babs needed a new nervous tic to replace her compulsive flank-covering. The floor is too cold for youze anyway. Why did youze ever let me kick youze outta your bed ta begin wit'?

“Oh, heh heh, um...” Apple Bloom awkwardly laughed. “Well, since it’s your last night here, Ah figured ya could go ahead an' have the bed again. Ah don’t mind, really. You have that long train ride tomorrowa ta deal wit' an' all. Sleeper cabs ain’t real comfy, are they?”

“They're alright, I s’pose…”

“Ya see? So go ahead, Babs. You can sleep there again tonight. Ah'm not gonna make ya sleep on the floor.”

Babs sighed and shook her head. “Okay, Apple Bloom, if youze say so…”

Babs Seed climbed into Apple Bloom’s bed as she had every night she had been in Ponyville, but this time, it felt wrong.

Babs had been a bully, a brute, an unrelenting victimizer to Apple Bloom and her friends. And for what reason? To hide her own insecurities, of course. And of course, all of this had been already hashed and discussed by the four fillies, and forgiven and somewhat forgotten with a long list and lots of drumbeats, but that didn’t change the heavy feelings in her heart.

She hasta sleep on that damn cold floor, all ‘cause o' youze, ‘cause she feels sorry for youze. And you’re the one who made her and her friends miserable, all cause youze got your own issues to solve! Babs, this ain’t good, nothin’ to let happen…

She looked at the ceiling, searching for a pattern among the wood grain. All of the heaviness that had been dragging her eyelids to the floor, making her bath seem almost dreamlike, had disappeared. Babs Seed was awake, with no intents of sleeping, as thoughts of guilt swarmed in her brain like the Windigoes of legend.

A thought came to her mind, and left a small blush on her cheeks in its wake. Maybe…?

“Apple Bloom?”

Apple Bloom rolled over, her eyes bearing no sign of fatigue either. “Yes, Babs?”

“Could youze… um…” Babs dug one of her forehooves into the covers next to her. “Could youze sleep with me tonight? I, um… I don’t wanna sleep alone.”

If they had been in the clubhouse, Scootaloo would have had to flick on a light above Apple Bloom’s head. “Sure, Babs,” she replied sweetly, rising from her makeshift bed and climbing next to Babs under the covers.

“Heh, thanks.” Babs Seed turned and faced the other wall as her cousin settled in behind her. Suddenly, there were icicles on her flank. “Ahh! Your back hooves are freezin'!!”

Giggling, Apple Bloom retracted her hindhooves. “Sorry, cuz. How 'bout this?” Apple Bloom snuggled in closer to her, wrapping her forehooves around Babs's shoulder.

Now, there was that heat in her cheeks again. “Um, Apple Bloom,” Babs said, her voice trailing off as she felt Apple Bloom snuggling into her back and shoulders.

“What is it, Babs?”

“What are youze doin’?”

“Jus' gettin' comfy, that’s all.” Apple Bloom’s voice sounded strangely smooth and smoky to Babs, the twang in it almost silenced. She had heard mares speak with voices like that, but only in contexts that did not fit their current situation.

What the hay is she doin’? Babs shifted awkwardly on her side of the bed. Though she had an older sister, her family had always provided a separate room for each of the fillies, and rarely had there been another pony sharing the sheets with Babs. In fact, sleepovers were rare for her as well, and other than one at a schoolfilly’s slumber party, this stay at Sweet Apple Acres had been one of the few nights where Babs did not sleep alone in a room.

“Apple Bloom…” Babs felt her cousin’s breath upon her neck and felt a strange nervousness gnawing in her belly that she didn’t recognize. Yet, the anxiety coupled with the guilt, churning it into a strange concoction that demanded to slip past her vocal cords. “There’s somethin’ I need ta tell youze.”

Apple Bloom had found out so far in her short life that the particular combination of words her cousin had just uttered usually led to trouble, or, at the very least, a long conversation. She swallowed. “Well, Ah think ya can go ahead and tell me.”

Babs flipped herself so that she was face-to-face with Apple Bloom, their noses mere inches from each other. Anxiety became a foal in her chest, causing her heart rate to increase. In the dark, Babs hoped her counterpart could not see the beads of sweat she felt forming on her forehead. Come on, now, Babs, youze need ta start talkin’.

Carrying on in spite of the thundering hooves in her chest, Babs began, “I still feel real awful ‘bout everythin’ I did ta youze and your friends. I mean… it ain’t right, youze know? It’s not youze girls fault what happens ta me back home in Manehatten…”

Babs Seed paused briefly, painful memories surfacing in her mind. “And youze didn’t deserve how I treated youze, how I made your lives miserable for damn near two weeks. And I know I’m a Cutie Mark Crusader and all, now, but I still… I don’t deserve ta be one, much less your cousin, or your friend, Apple Bloom…” A tear formed in her eye and threatened to take the plunge down her cheek, even as she felt more swelling behind it.

Apple Bloom found a spark of bravery within her and rolled Babs onto her back, climbing on top of her. Babs turned an even darker shade of red, her heart and breath missing a beat. Her mind went blank; she had never been this close to another pony before.

“Tell me about home,” Apple Bloom whispered.

“Huh?”

“Tell me… about home. What life is like for you there.”

Apple Bloom’s voice was now totally devoid of its trademark twang, smooth, smoky, terrifying and enchanting. Babs didn’t know what to make of it. What had prompted this kind of behavior from her cousin? This kind of…

Intimacy?

And, now that she thought about it, nopony had ever asked her what Manehatten was like. Nopony had asked about the bullies, or how she felt about being a blank flank in a town full of stuck-up fancy-pants ponies where namesake and cutiemark meant the difference between living in poverty and living in grandeur.

It was the Earth pony equivalent of Canterlot, a city that would chew up and spit ponies out like they were nothing. And it was that hometown of hers where the other foals treated her like the ground beneath their hooves, the cold floorboards that Babs had delegated to her cousin when she took the bully title for herself.

And thinking about all of that made the tear escape, and a few others followed it.

Wow, it must be really rough for her… Apple Bloom wiped Babs's tear with her forehoof. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, Babs…”

“No,” Babs whispered back, her voice shaking, “I… It’s just… nopony’s ever asked that of me before now… No one’s cared ta ask but youze..”

Apple Bloom wrapped her forehooves around her Babs Seed's neck, gently moving her one long strand of red mane out of her eyes as she did so. “I’m all ears for you now, Babs, if you want to…”

Babs Seed surprised herself and returned the gesture, pulling Apple Bloom closer to her in the darkness. She felt a new and brief boldness, even as her heartbeat quickened beneath her coat. Strength came to her by the means of Apple Bloom’s caring words.

Perhaps talkin’ ‘bout it will make it feel betta… Especially talkin’ about it with youze.

Tears flowed freely as Babs opened up about wounds she thought had long scarred, Apple Bloom wiping them away quietly as she listened. From parents who worked too hard and too long to truly be there for her, to bullies who mercilessly teased her—the last blankflank in her class—every day whether the teacher was there or not, to the sister whose attempts to find out what was wrong were met with silence and slammed doors, Babs told it all.

At some point in those long moments, minutes only as they were, Babs felt fresh, new tears from above mixing with hers, and could not help but pause and smile.

“W-w-what are you smilin’ about, silly filly?” Apple Bloom asked, trying to stop the flood of tears that were roaring at the gates of her eyelids.

“Youze… youze was cryin’ with me,” Babs said, grinning softly still.

“Well… of course I was. You don’t deserve all of that, Babs.”

Babs wished there was a hard surface nearby, so she could fiddle her hooves on it. “Ah, but, yes, I do, Apple Bloom. My sis, youze know, she tries ta help me, but I won’t let her. And I won’t tell the teachas or my parents or anypony else 'bout it… All my sis knows is what she’s heard from other fillies as they pass on by, mockin’ me… I… I just let it happen. And I do awful things ta good fillies like youze, and—“

A hoof silenced her lips. “No. Don’t ever think you deserve that.” Apple Bloom’s voice was deeper now, deadpan, solid as a rock. She removed her hoof from Babs' and whispered, “You’re a good filly.”

Me?

“You mean that, Apple Bloom?”

Babs Seed watched something change in Apple Bloom's eyes. They seemed to soften and sparkle at the same time, with something much more benign than tears. “Yes, I really do.”

Babs Seed realized that Apple Bloom’s nose was closer than it had been a few minutes ago—had it been creeping closer towards her as she spoke, like it had a mind of its own?—and she could feel her exhalations upon her face. Hooves pounded in her chest. She felt her face reddening even more, if that was even possible.

She’s… so close to me… I… I could just…

Silence. Both fillies felt their breathing quicken, and were close enough that they could feel each other’s heartbeat through their fur. The moment seemed to freeze in time, no longer bound by the laws of Luna, Celestia, Mother Galaxia or even Discord in all his chaos.

It’s now or never… Apple Bloom thought, and then, like a thief in the night, pressed her lips to Babs's own.

Drowning… was Babs's first thought, warmth flooding her body and slowing her mind to a halt, to the point where she felt she had forgotten to breathe. And then she realized, through the thick haze of milliseconds, that Apple Bloom had kissed her. And then, Babs kissed back, just as hard.

~

An eternity passed, it seemed, before the two fillies separated, coming up for air from the deep of their first kiss, an ocean of mindlessness and warmth and need. Apple Bloom rose her body slightly above Babs as she gasped, smiling down at the beautiful filly below her. Breathing deeply, Babs smiled back, then pulled Apple Bloom back down to her chest with forceful hooves.

“Now… tell me, lil’ lady,” Babs purred, her voice deepening, “Where that came from…”

Apple Bloom stroked the mane of the filly below her, making a mental note of this exact moment, as she did not want to forget it. “Well, I’ll be honest, Babsy,” she explained, giggling at the new nickname she gave her guest, “I thought you were cute from the moment I saw you. And, in spite of everything, I still liked you, and… well… I guess listening to you open up to me like that… I guess… I really like you.”

Blushing, Babs said, “Aw… Apple Bloom… I… I really like youze too,” and kissed her gently, softer than before. “And I can’t really turn down a pony that saved me from crashing in a giant golden apple, can I?”

Returning the kiss, Apple Bloom giggled and said, “I guess not.” She nuzzled Babs's neck, smelling the sweet scent of her fur, committing it to memory.

“Babsy,” Apple Bloom whispered, her eyes closed, feeling a pair of forehooves wrap around her waist, “yer gonna come visit me once in a while, aren’t ya?”

“Yes,” Babs Seed answered breathlessly. “More than once in a while if I can. But… since I’m here tonight…” she began, feeling a courage she had never experienced, emboldened by the blood rushing through her veins, “let’s save tonight.”

Apple Bloom met her eyes and nodded, smiling softly.

Rays of moonlight began drifting through the window of Apple Bloom’s bedroom, the moon rising to its highest height now, the clock resetting to four zeroes and a new day beginning.

Magic, the old legends say, is strong at this time, second only to the Witching Hour, both white and black. The moon can create strange dreams in ponies who are sensitive to its power. Nightmares and sweet dreams, are of course, two sides of the same coin; in constant harmony, both seeking and needing the other, in a tango of light and dark, good and evil, forever and ever.

Apple Bloom and Babs Seed spent the rest of their night close, whispering, laughing, sharing stories and kisses, until the moonbeams were too strong to resist, and in their slumber they found sweet dreams, dreams that would outlast the steam of the engine or the distance of the train tracks that would separate them tomorrow.

In dreams, they ran, played, fought, wrestled, separated and then came together, in a tango of opposites, the apple blossom and the bad seed. Uniting from individual definition into contradictory harmony—completeness.

And for that night, at least, the two Earth ponies experienced magic.