The walk to the library was-- well-- a bit tiresome. Despite Grandpa and Grandma taking care of the first group... and despite the large guards scowling and brandishing their spears in their magic... it seemed like every other block there was another bunch of ponies popping up yelling questions and snapping pictures. Eventually Grandpa and Grandma got tired of talking to them and just started picking them up with their magic and dropping them headfirst in trashcans and flowerbeds.

Nyx could only look on in envy. They made magic look so easy...!

Bright Eyes heard her sigh. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing," Nyx said.

Bright Eyes watched Nyx's grandparents wield their magic. "Boy, I wish I was that powerful," he said, shaking his head. "If I was, boy, those bullies would never pick on me--!" He concentrated, puffing out his cheeks. Only a few sparks shot out of the tip of his horn. He let his breath out in a puff. "Nuts. That's about as good as it gets." He turned a little red.

Nyx nodded sympathetically. It was kind of lousy being a unicorn-- or an alicorn-- and not being able to do diddly. Even not having a cutie mark wasn't as bad, in her opinion. She was surprised Bright Eyes would talk about it.

"What about you?" Bright Eyes asked. "I bet you're really powerful and stuff. I mean, you're an alicorn. Even an alicorn filly has gotta be pretty awesome with magic."

Nyx felt her face get hot. "Me?" she squeaked. "Um..."

"What was that, kids?" Grandpa Night Light said. He was distracted, he was in the middle of magically tossing another paparazzi in a nearby fountain. There was a yelp and a splash. "There. Hope he learns some manners... now, what were you talking about?"

"Oh, nothing," Nyx said, looking away. Geez, she didn't want to talk about her magic, or the lack thereof, especially to grownups. it was embarrassing.

"Oh, I was asking how strong her magic was," Bright Eyes said artlessly.

Night Light's eyebrows went up. "Well, that's kind of a personal question, boy," he said, chiding.

Bright Eyes blinked. "It is? Oh. oh gosh," he said, ducking his head and blushing. "I- I didn't know that."

"Oh no no, not that kind of personal, dear," Grandma Velvet said, chuckling. "Just... personal."

Bright Eyes scowled uncertainly. "I don't know that sort of stuff," he complained. "Nopony ever told me that. I don't have any unicorns in my family. Or in my school, other than me. Or anywhere else."

"Really? Goodness," Velvet said.

"Must make things a bit rough," Night Light noted.

Nyx and Bright Eyes both flashed back to a certain incident in a movie theater bathroom and winced. "Yeah," Bright Eyes said. "You could say that."

"Sorry to hear that, lad," Night Light said. "Ah! Here we are--"

Nyx looked up. They'd arrived at the library. Up at the top of the steps were Twilight and Spike. She was wearing sunglasses and saddlebags full of scrolls, and talking with a skinny teenage Crystal pony with a shaggy black mane, enormous saddlebags of his own and a movie camera of some sort strapped around his neck. Twilight caught a glimpse of them and waved, heading down the steps to them. "Mom, Dad!" she said, skipping down the stairs.

"There's my girl," Night Light chortled, catching her in a hug. "How's your day going?"

"Pretty good, actually," Twilight said. "But exhausting. Roller Reel, Spike and I were just taking a break for lunch." She paused to give Nyx a nuzzle. "Been a good girl for Grandma and Grandpa?"

"Uh huh." Nyx nodded. She pulled Bright Eyes over. "This is Bright Eyes," she said. "You remember him from the fancy dinner?"

"Hullo," Bright Eyes said politely.

"Ah yes... the one you met at that incident that nopony will tell me about," Twilight said, a little dryly. "Well, it's very nice to meet you, Bright Eyes."

"Hey, Mr. N, Mrs. V," Spike said, strolling down the steps behind Twilight. "How's it going?"

"Oh, same as always, Spike," Velvet said.

"So, Roller Reel," Grandpa Night Light said, his cigarette holder at a jaunty angle. "So what's your role in all this?"

"At the moment, film documentarian," Roller said. He opened his camera, popped out the used film cartridge, stowed it in his saddlebag, slapped a new cartridge into the camera and snapped it shut with a flourish. "Getting all this awesome historical stuff down on celluloid, per Miss Twilight's orders." The camera swung up on its spring loaded braces and locked in place. The camera whirred to life. "Aaaand here we meet the immediate family of the head of the Lost Tomb project..."

Night Light grinned ruthlessly into the camera. "Watch yourself there, cowpoke-- I made things pretty uncomfortable for the last photographer to stick a lens in my face. He got him some footage he wasn't expecting when I caught up with him."

"Oh yeah? Of what?"

"Only his darkroom technician and his proctologist know for sure."

"Dad!" Twilight snapped. "Quit trying to intimidate my camerapony."

Roller Reel just smirked. "I can run fifteen miles an hour backwards with a fully loaded camera," he said. "Take your best shot, old timer."(1)

Night Light's grin turned genuine. He looked over at his wife and daughter. "Moxie. I like him better already." Nyx and Bright Eyes giggled fit to bust.

Roller panned the camera down. "And hey, who's this? Cute foal. Yours?"

"Ah, the filly's mine," Twilight said, smiling. "Roller, meet Nyx. Nyx, Roller Reel."

Nyx stepped up and struck a pose, hoof held out daintily. "Nyx Sparkle, future idol of millions," she announced in her best Mare-lyn Monroe accent. She tossed her head, nearly dislodging Peewee from his perch. Spike made gagging motions behind her back.

Roller snickered. "Hey, you're on your way, then," Roller said. "Just think of the hundreds of ponies who'll be watching this movie. Heck, maybe even thousands."

"Thousands?" Nyx said, suddenly a lot less confident. "Gleep." She slowly backed up between her grandparents till she was safely out of sight of the camera.

The adults had a laugh at her expense. Roller cocked his head and looked at Nyx. "Hey wait," he said. "Nyx? So you're the filly who used to be that Nightmare Moon? Huh. Cool."

Nyx came out of hiding and looked at him in surprise. "You're not afraid of me?" she said.

Roller shrugged while he kept filming. Cute kids made great footage. "I probably should be, yeah," he said. "but I mean, I was stuck in time along with the rest of the Crystal Empire before the whole Nightmare Moon thing even happened. And yeah, there was that time where the sun didn't rise for days, but we go through that every winter anyways, this far North. To me you're just another little filly." He took in her giant sunglasses, her hat, the phoenix chick snoozing on her hat, her horn, her wings, her slit-pupiled eyes... "Okay, a weird little filly with a freaky back story..." he admitted.

"Heyyy," Nyx scowled.

Spike gave a shrug of his own. "Hey, it's true enough."

"--But still just a little filly." Roller shrugged again. "Besides, when it comes to scary, King Sombra is kind of a hard act to follow."

"Yeah," Bright Eyes said fervently.

Night Light listened to all this. He stroked his chin thoughtfully, eyeing  and looked over at his wife. "Velvet?" he said, leaning over to her.

"Yes dear?"

"I think I have an idea on how to get the press off Twilight's back about Nyx, at least," he muttered.

Twilight overheard him. "Dad, what are you up to?" She asked suspiciously.

The grownups started putting their heads together, chattering over... something. Sometimes it was confusing for Nyx, being who she was;  she'd been a grownup, so she knew that the stuff grownups talked about should have made sense to her and been important. But it still got so boring listening in, sometimes. She idly looked around while they talked.

It was then that she noticed something odd. No, she didn't notice it, so much as she felt it. Something was off, something that made her mane prickle. They were all standing halfway up the broad stairway to the front door of the library, on a wide circular landing edged with park benches. They were the only ponies there at the moment, except for one crystal pony sitting on a bench on the other side of the landing. He was brown, with a black mane, and his eyes were red like he hadn't slept in a long time. He was laden down with two heavy saddlebags, even more enormous than Roller Reel's, and he was looking straight at their little group. No, he wasn't just looking, he was staring. He was glaring so hard at them all that Nyx could practically feel his gaze prickling on her skin.

His eyes met Nyx's. For one brief second his eyes went wide with surprise-- then they hardened. He got to his hooves and started walking toward them.

Then he started running.

Nyx felt her heart freeze. "MoooOOOM--!" she said, her voice ending on a scream.

Twilight looked up just as the red-eyed pony plowed into them. He caught everypony by complete surprise, body slamming the guards, using the bulk of his enormous saddlebags to knock them sprawling. Twilight had tumbled to the ground in the initial rush; before she could get to her feet the pony was on her, holding a knife to her throat with one hoof.

"Nopony move or she dies!" he yelled, his voice cracking. The guards froze halfway to their feet, hesitating. That was all the time he needed. "Death to the interlopers!" He shouted. He grabbed a loose strap on his saddlebags in his teeth and started to pull.

"No!" Nyx screamed. She'd been knocked sprawling with the others, and was behind the madpony. She didn't know what the strap was for, but she didn't need an explanation to know it was bad for Twilight. By pure reflex she tried to magic the horrible pony away; her horn only threw a couple of useless sparks. Desperately she did the only thing she could think of; she ran up, grappled with the red eyed pony's back leg, and bit his hock as hard as she could.

He howled and staggered back, dropping his knife. In a flash Twilight had rolled free. "Nyx, get away from him!" she cried out. The guards rushed him, but in an act of depressingly good thinking he kicked the little filly loose and right under their hooves. They stumbled, frantically avoiding stepping on her.

"Too late!" he shouted triumphantly, finally pulling the strap. Something in the bags started to spark and fizz.

"Great MAKER, it's a bomb!" one of the guards shouted.

Glong.

The madpony was suddenly underneath a shimmering purple bubble. It was joined a moment later by a pale blue, then a dark green one. A gold and silver one were next. All five unicorn adults got to their feet, horns glowing. Nyx could see it in his eyes, the split second he realized that his plan had failed. He screamed in frustration soundlessly--

Then the multilayered bubble over him went white.

Grandma Velvet pulled her and Bright Eyes close, and covered their eyes. "Don't look, children--" she said brokenly. Nyx didn't resist.

"Wait." Twilight sounded puzzled. "That didn't feel like an explosion..."  Nyx pulled away Grandma Velvet's hoof and looked. One by one the shields were dropped, revealing... a gigantic blob of foam?

The blob sagged and spread out. The red eyed pony's head poked out through the froth. Spluttering and coughing, He looked around, bewildered. "...That didn't work right," he said unnecessarily. An instant later he was dogpiled by the two guards. Foam flew everywhere. They had him pinned to the pavement in an instant, his hooves tied. One of them stood with his spear at the pony bomber's throat and his hoof on his back, while the other went through the extremely foamy contents of his bags.

The crowds all around raised a tumult. Twilight and her family huddled together as flashbulbs popped all around, comforting one another while the guards searched the prisoner. "Good Heavens, that was terrifying!" "Are you all right?" "Did he hurt you?" Queries and comforting nuzzles were traded.

"Well, it appears to be some sort of... attempt at an explosive device," the guard said, holding up a dripping, broken mess of wires, tubes and ruptured canisters. "And some sort of book of instructions." He held up a hoof-full of stapled together papers.

"Let me see those," Twilight Sparkle said. She took the papers in her magic, cleaned the foam off and began flipping through the pages. Among the pages were several blueprints, including what looked like one for the explosive device. After a minute or so she addressed the would-be assassin. "You," she said. "Where did you get these?"

"You'll get nothing out of---hngggh," he said as the guard pinning him pressed his hoof down on his back. "The Revolutionist's Recipes," he croaked. "Got a copy on the black market..."

Twilight scowled at him. "These aren't from the Revolutionist's Recipes," she said. "I've read that book. Somepony copied chapters five through eight of '101 Practical Pony Party Pranks!(2)" She held up a page; it showed in meticulous detail the proper construction of a Party Cannon. "Trust me, I know the authors."

"Congratulations, Wonder Horse," one of the guards said sarcastically. "You just tried to assassinate a VIP with a giant party favor." The bomber groaned and faceplanted.

"Are you all unharmed?" The other guard asked. At everypony's nods to the affirmative he breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Once backup arrives we'll be taking this scumbag in for questioning."

"It'll do you no good," the bomber pony said in bleak triumph. "I took a dose of poison this morning. I'll be dead in less than twenty four hours."

Twilight flipped through the hoofwritten pages again. "Let me guess. Pale blue flower, yellow stamens, tulip-like petals?" The pony nodded. "That's Poison Joke, fella. Good news is, you'll live. Bad news is, you're gonna be willing to tell us anything you know for the cure." She handed the stapled pages back to the guard. "Just sit on him for 24 hours. He'll be more than happy to cooperate by then."

The guard saluted and returned his attention to the prisoner. Twilight turned her attention back to her family and friends. "Is everypony okay?" she said, nuzzling Nyx. "Nyx, he didn't hurt you did he?"

"No mommy," Nyx said in a small, frightened voice. She huddled up close to her mother's legs.

The guards sent up a magic flare. a moment later several pegasi guards arrived with with manacles and a prisoner cart. One of them got Twilight's attention. "Pardon, Ma'am, but we're going to move all of you inside for the moment for safety's sake. He might have had collaborators willing to take a second shot."

"Certainly officer. Nyx? You and your friend go on inside the library with Grandma and Grandpa. I'll be right in, I just have to talk to these nice guards for a moment, okay?" Nyx gave her another worried nuzzle, but obeyed. They all hustled inside the library, accompanied by more of the guards.

Twilight waited several seconds. "Are they inside?" She asked one of the guards calmly. "All out of sight?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good." Without another word Twilight fainted dead away.