The night was quiet and still. This late at night, most ponies were either inside sleeping, or enjoying meals with family and friends. Moonstone, on the other hoof, was running through the night, on a search for her daughter Night Valley. She messed up, and she knew it, and she couldn’t take it back.

Where is she? She thought to herself, then it hit her. She’s in the one place I used to run off too as a baby bat teenager.

Eventually Moonstone arrived at a large, open cave that sat upon a hill. The moon was shining over grassy terrain, big and bright in the sky. Upon further listening, the murmur of bats accompanied by the whinnies of a ivory pegasus filly could be heard.

“Val…? Are you here?”

Suddenly, a swarm of bats rushed out of the cave, followed by the sound of hoofsteps. Draped in a black cloak, Night Valley wore a cool expression as she walked towards the entrance of the cave.

“So you’re here to take me back home, are you? It was fun while it lasted,” she uttered sarcastically.

Valley’s expression changed from one of worry, to one of sadness. Moonstone felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up while she shuffled her hooves in the dirt.

“No… I haven’t come here to take you back home. I came here because I need to talk to you. I had a feeling you’d show up here. “

Val vacantly gazed back at Queen Luna’s moon.

“How? Do you hire guards to come spy on me? Or Aunt Luna?” Valley asked, not looking her mother in the eye.

Moonstone paused for a moment, feeling meek and small in the presence of her angered daughter, but she eventually mutters out some words. “No…Because when I was young, this is where I’d run to when I was upset, o-or frustrated…I’ve always felt safe in the dark.”

Valley suddenly turned to Moonstone, her brows deeply furrowed in confusion. “You?”

Moonstone slowly nodded. “In the dark, I was free, I was understood. Some ponies didn’t get it, sure, but I wasn’t going to waste my breath on them…At least, I tried not to let it get to me.”

“I had no idea Mom, you always seemed so…so much like everyone else. Like…all proper and everything. You’re a Princess, it seems like everyone gets you. I never would’ve imagined you like…this.” She pondered for a long moment. “What happened?”

Moonstone sat down, releasing her hair from the bun she had it tied up in. “I let them get to me… I let everypony get to me. I wasted my time, pondering their thoughts, feeling their gaze even when I wasn’t in the room, and tearing myself apart from the inside… But there is something that my mom told me, something I’ll never forget.”

“Your mom…?” Valley sat down as well, her eyes wide with wonder.

The unicorn mare’s shoulders un-tensed. “Grandma Maud…She told me once, that it isn’t worth me wasting my breath on people who don’t care about me, because they never really mattered in the first place. Ponies should be themselves, after all, if it isn’t hurting anypony, what’s the big…” She stopped, releasing a shaky breath, taking in what she just said. “…Deal…?”

A long moment of silence ensued between them as they both took it in, until Valley spoke up.

“Well, why didn’t you listen? It isn’t hurting anybody, what is the big deal?”

“…Because I was afraid of you feeling exactly as I did, completely and utterly alone. Perhaps I should listen to my own advice…Shouldn’t I?”

Valley nodded with a knowing, slightly smug smile. “Yes. Yes you should.”

*****

The next morning, after a long talk and a trip back home, Valley and her mother were definitely seeing more eye-to-eye now. But as the pegasus followed her into her parents’ room, she couldn’t help but be confused.

“What exactly did you want to show me?”

Moonstone walked into her closet, rummaging around in the mess of things within it, before pulling out a large cardboard box with the words “GOTH STUFF” written on it.

Valley’s eyes widened in realization. “This is yours…”

Moonstone looked down and nodded lightly. “I tucked all this stuff away when I married your father…I was too afraid of public opinions. But now, I want to share it all with you, I want you to get to know me better.”

Valley nodded and helped her open the box, marveling at and sorting through all the stuff inside. Stuff that felt…so right to her that she had no idea was part of her heritage for so long. She looked up at her mother, who looked like a new mare with her ebony jewelry and black parasol, and smiled.

“I feel like I already do.”