Moonstone couldn’t get her mind off the conversation she’d just had with her daughter. Even as she mingled with the party guests and distracted them from the birthday filly’s absence, it kept replaying in her mind.

“What, because you don’t like when I dress differently?”

“You’re just as bad as them!”

“Why do you care? You wouldn’t understand anyway.”

Most parents would dismiss this as nothing but teenage angst, sure to pass with age and wisdom. But even if it was that, Moonstone knew there was something deeper going on below the surface. Because she’d felt the same way herself.

She couldn’t lie, even now as a princess, she still didn’t feel like she fit in either. She wanted to be herself and she wanted Night Valley to be herself too, but it was just too risky with all of Equestria’s eyes on them. Val would get hurt just as she had. How could she tell her daughter that in a way that she’d understand?

Moonstone’s mind was still spinning with these thoughts as she bid farewell to the guests later that night. Suddenly, she heard a cry as her husband, Velvet Shade, galloped across the ballroom towards her.

“Moony!”

“Velvie! What is it?”

“It’s Val! I found this in her room!” He shoved a paper into Moonstone’s face before tearfully collapsing into her arms. “Why, just why?”

It was a runaway note.

As she comforted her husband and assured him that they would send out a search party, Moonstone thought back to their conversation once again. Of course that was why she ran away. If only for a moment, Moonstone had shared her own feelings, her own past, with her daughter. Then she wouldn’t feel so alone and want to run away in the first place.

When I find her, Moonstone resolved, I will tell her nothing but the truth this time.