The sun beat down on the earth, the heat causing the plants to turn brown and wither. The sisters had stopped running about an hour ago. Now they walked, the heat slowing their pace, heads down, trying to feel a wisp of a breeze.

"Sister," Luna said in between pants, "I'm thirsty."

"As am I." Aurora had been trying to ignore the sensation, but the dryness was now persistent. No matter how strong she was in the day, the sun was sapping her strength. Just get us somewhere safe, she pleaded. See us somewhere safe.

Luna swayed on the spot where she stood, blinking as she had done in Grizabella's cottage. Aurora held up her sister, waiting for her to fall into an unnatural sleep. However, Luna's eyes kept wandering as if she was seeing twenty things at once. She tried walking again, eyes rolling into her head with her first step. "There's so many…They all want me."

As her little sister staggered over the browning fields, Aurora remembered something her mother had once said. "You can't help everypony at once. You have to decide which one is more important than the others. It's not an easy thing, putting others aside. But you will have to do it eventually. Just remember that not every need is something that is immediate. Learn the difference between want and need, and you'll always be in the place to help ponies." Just the memory of her mother's voice, her mother's embrace, sent her into tears. But she held them back. She approached her sister, voice cracking a little. "You can't help them all at once, sister. Remember, some want you, others need you. Find the ones that need you."

The younger alicorn's eyes came into focus. "Mama said that…"

"Yes, our mother did say that."

Shaking away the nightmares, Luna took several deep breaths. "I wish that I could control these."

Aurora placed an assuring hoof on her sister's shoulder. "You will, with time."

"But why is it happening now?! I don't understand."

"Everyone is afraid, sister. Discord is causing chaos, more than we'll ever understand. They fear him, and they fear for themselves, their loved ones, the future…the list goes on."

"But why me? Why do I have to be the one to see all these things?"

The white alicorn gestured to her sister's flank, her hoof a sharp contrast to the inky blackness that surrounded the crescent moon. "I think it has to do with your Mark. Not only are you the Princess of the Moon, you're the Princess of the Night. And most things sleep at night. Maybe this is part of your powers. And until now, they were dormant because there was no reason to be afraid of anything."

Luna's lower lip jutted out and she stared at the ground, kicking a pebble away. "I don't like it."

"You'll learn to understand it."

The two agreed to rest for now, seeing as walking would only make them more thirsty and tired. They trotted over to a tree whose leaves were shriveling into brownness and sat in the thinning shade.

Luna kept her head up, looking around at everything, her mouth unconsciously twisting into a worried grimace. Her older sister did not miss this. She touched their horns together, and Aurora guided Luna's head down. She put her hoof over her sister and pulled her close, adding her wing on top.

It seemed only like a moment later that a voice startled them both into wakefulness. Their wings flared until they got their bearings. A young colt had his head cocked to the side, as if he was still deciding they were ponies. His coat was a buttery yellow with his mane and tail resembling brown sugar. He didn't have a Cutie Mark yet. His green eyes landed on Aurora's head.

"How come you've got wings and horns?" he asked. "I thought you could have only wings or only horns or nothing at all."

"We're alicorns," Luna said, hesitating on her last word. "Don't you know what those are?"

"I guess they're what you look like."

Aurora looked around. The tree's leaves were all gone, leaving behind a withered trunk and branches. The grass had yellowed and was now being blown loose by the passing breeze. She could see the young colt's hoofsteps in the grass. "How long have you been here?"

"Since you fell asleep. Actually, I got here back when the tree had a few leaves left. I wasn't sure what you were at first. So I spent most of your nap trying to figure out what type of pony you were. Then I got worried you were dead, so I shouted."

"Oh…"

"Are you two looking for water?"

"Yes!" Luna cried. "Please tell us you know where some is!"

The colt pointed. "There's a well right behind that tree. I've been sent to fetch water from it, actually. But it's kinda big for me."

Aurora smiled at the colt. "We'll help you."

They trotted over to the well. The rock wall was taller than most wells the sisters had seen. The colt's head would barely see over it. Luna offered herself as a step-ladder, balancing the young one on her back. The three of them stared down into the black below.

Smirking at the two alicorns, the colt said, "Watch this." He turned his head towards the well and bellowed, "HELLO!"

Instead of his shout reverberating off the walls, there was a voice, the colt's voice, mixed with another's that echoed up. "Who dares wake me?" The sound of claws meeting stone clacked up the well, each claw popping out, sending skittering pebbles down. It struck again, closer this time.

The colt's ears flopped back, his pupils shrinking as he raised up a hoof. "I don't think there's any water in the well…"

"Run!" Aurora ushered the her sister ahead of her, the colt now holding on to Luna's neck for dear life.

The claws clacked again, this time scratching the stone. Then, with the sound of a thunderstorm, the monster burst from the well.

It was a huge black mass, with burning red eyes, shaped like that of a bear in the front and a lion in the back. It opened its mouth to reveal rows of sharp teeth. Its breath was sickly sweet, and as he panted, low growls escaped his throat.

The second Aurora saw it in full, she froze. She couldn't move. All she could do was imagine those teeth sinking into her. She glanced over at Luna. Luna wasn't moving either, but she was panting, as if she couldn't get enough air. Only the colt retained some form of movement. His eyes were wide with terror and his hooves were quivering, but he still somehow leaped off the alicorn's back and trotted over to the beast.

What happened next would never been forgotten.

The child started to giggle.

The monster growled at the noise, bearing its fangs to show how fearsome he was.

The earth pony gave a loud snort. "Haha! It's like it couldn't decide what animal it should have been! And then it burst out of the well! Ha-ha! Whoever heard of monsters living in wells?! That's just-" He couldn't finish his sentence because of how hard he was laughing.

Twitching, the creature lunged at the colt.

A moment later, it exploded into mounds of sticky black goo.

Licking his lips the earth pony cried out to the two sisters, "Hey! He was made of licorice! What kind of a stupid monster is made of licorice?"

It took Aurora moment to remember that she was still alive, still breathing, and now covered in licorice. Luna had had some sense to jump back at the last moment, though now she was up to her knees in the stuff. She levitated her sister out of the licorice, setting her on the ground.

Still stunned, Luna turned to the young colt. "How did you do that?"

The colt blinked a couple of times. "I just thought he was expecting us to be afraid, so I decided to laugh at him. I figured something unexpected would do something."

"Well, thank you—we don't even know your name!"

The colt frowned and looked away. "It's embarrassing…"

"Nonsense," Aurora said. "We have to know the name of the colt who saved our lives."

"It's…" He sighed in defeat. "Humble Pie."

"…Isn't that a saying?" Luna asked.

Aurora nudged her sister. "Now, sister, you know ponies have special names."

"Yeah," Humble said, "except mine is going to be a terrible destiny of making pies with the rest of my family."

"Don't you like your family?"

"Yeah, except it's boring. And I don't understand it anyways. I mean, I could be doing a lot better things with my time. Like saving alicorns from licorice monsters."

Luna stifled a laugh.

Humble brightened. "Was it really that funny?"

"Yes! But…it's been so long since we've had something to laugh, or even smile about." The purple alicorn slumped to the ground. "Our kingdom is in chaos, ponies keep getting hurt around us, and I keep getting sucked into other ponies nightmares."

"It can't be all that bad."

She raised her head to glare at him. Before Aurora could intervene, Luna snapped at the young colt. She walked towards him, wings flared, pushing him backwards. "You didn't see an earth pony's barn get destroyed because of you; you didn't see a pegasus get his wings crushed because of you; you didn't see another pegasus become Discord's puppet in front of your very eyes! It's because of us these things are happening!" She was now almost on top of Humble Pie, panting. Then she backed away, her breath shaking before she started crying.

Aurora nuzzled her sister, wishing that she could share equally in her pain. Humble came closer, looking very solemn. His eyes became riveted on Luna; he only broke the contact to look at Aurora for assurance that he could approach.

"What I said was really stupid of me," he began, trying to prop up her head so she could see into his eyes. "Please don't cry. I didn't mean to do that…"

"I'm sorry!" Luna said with a gasp. "I just…just…"

He looked up at Aurora. "How come you're not crying?"

She gave Humble a half smile. "Not everyone cries when they're sad, Humble."

The earth pony looked at the ground for a moment, eyes flickering with inspiration. He looked up at the sisters with determination. "I don't like it when ponies are sad, so I'm going to make you smile. And that's a promise. Cross my heart and-"

"You may want to be careful what you say," Aurora interrupted. "Discord's changed reality."

"What do you mean?"

"With Fruit Tart, the other earth pony we met, his barn was attacked by blades of grass. Literal blades of grass. So I suggest you choose your words with care."

Humble took a breath before he continued the traditional promise oath. "Cross my heart and hope to…fly, stick a n—cupcake in my eye." Humble neither sprouted wings nor was pelted with cupcakes. Seeming a little disappointed, he cleared his throat. "You know what I'm going to do when this is all over?"

When the sisters didn't answer immediately, Humble rolled his eyes. "You're supposed to say, 'What?' when I ask something…"

Aurora gave a bashful smile before gesturing at Humble to try again.

"When this is all over, guess what I'm gonna do?"

"What?"

"I'm gonna start a rock farm! Yep, we're gonna farm all sorts of rocks! Big rocks, little rocks, red rocks, green rocks, purple rocks, you name it! Yep, Humble Pie's Rock Farm. That's what I'm going to do!"

Wiping her nose, Luna looked at Humble with confusion. "Isn't doing a rock farm a little silly?"

"Of course it's not silly! I mean, have you ever heard of a rock farm before? Of course you haven't! That's because no one's thought of a rock farm until just now! It'll be groundbreaking! Literally!"

The white alicorn stifled a giggle. She was grateful that this young earth pony was so willing to make her and her sister smile.

"And that's just the start! I'm gonna make all my kids work at the rock farm too! We're gonna sell our rock all across Equestria! We'll be the richest rock farmers you've ever seen!"

"What do you need a rock farm for though?" Aurora asked.

Humble brightened. "How else are you supposed to get little rocks? You break up the big ones! And ponies always need smaller rocks for gardening, and for building and for…furniture, if you're into that sort of thing."

It was then Luna let out her first real laugh. "That's ridiculous!" she cried. "Who would build their entire life out of rocks?"

The earth pony shrugged. "I would. In fact, that's what I'm going to do! I'm going to build my entire house out of rocks! And everything inside it will be made of rocks! The beds, the tables! Everything but the door."

"Why not the door?"

"Because a door made of rocks is just a wall. Then I'd have to kick it down to open it, and spend all day putting the rocks back into place. And by the time, I was done, I'd just have to kick it down again to get back in my house. It's a very tiring process."

Both sisters were chuckling now. And strangely, Aurora sensed a change. Though nothing had changed in Equestria, and they were still a long way from finding the Elements, things didn't seem quite as bleak as before. She felt lighter, happier, and for the first time, more hopeful that she and Luna would win against Discord.

It was then the sun disappeared behind the horizon, plunging them into the night. A waning crescent moon hung over them like Discord's grin.

Aurora stiffened, and turned to Humble. "Where do you live?"

"I can find my way home," he said with a confident smile.

"NO." the sisters spoke in unison. Luna continued, gently placing her wing over the top of him. "We don't want anything happening to you. We've seen enough ponies get hurt."

"Please let us walk you home," Aurora added. "We've been forced to leave so many ponies behind to face Discord alone. And we can't bear the thought of someone as young as you facing him."

Before the earth pony could refuse, the Princess of the Night made an offer. "I can tell you all about the stars as we walk you home."

The earth pony's eyes widened. "Really?"

In response, Luna levitated the pony onto her back. Humble pointed in the direction of his home, eyes alight with excitement.

Aurora walked behind Luna and Humble. While she felt exposed, she would have felt worse if her sister and the earth pony vanished behind her while she was distracted. She refused to let either of them out of her sight. While she listened to the stories of the stars, how some were great alicorns of old, set in the heavens to watch the future ponies of the world, how others were shapes in the sky meant for guiding lost ponies, she also listened for the sound of anything that could approach them. She thought about lighting up her horn, but she didn't want to ruin anyone's night vision, nor did she want to make them an obvious target.

A small shack appeared on the horizon, its disheveled straw roof the first feature anypony could make out in the darkness. A silhouette of a male earth pony was approaching them.

"Son? Son, is that you?!"

Humble leapt off Luna's back. "This is where we say good-bye for now."

"Wait," Aurora placed her hoof on his back. "Before you go, do you know anything about any Elements?"

The colt shook his head. "Sorry."

"It's all right. Go on home, Humble."

"We'll come visit," Luna promised. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

Humble gave a quick chuckle before trotting off to his father.

Aurora took a moment to stargaze. "Sister, do you think that there really are other alicorns up in the heavens, watching us down here?"

Luna looked skyward. "I think so."

"Do you think if they could, they'd help us?"

"I'm sure they would."

"I wish they would. I'm so tired of doing this alone."

Luna snuggled into her sister. "You're not alone. You have me. We have each other."

As they watched Humble Pie enter his home with his father, the sisters trotted off into the night. The cool air wrapped around the two. Neither sister noticed frost forming on the now dead plants.

Neither of them heard the muffled cries for help that came from the little shack.