>Oh say can you see
>By the dawn’s early light
>A bunch of cricket traps Night Watch put out last night
>”Quit yawning and get collecting,” she commands. “Where’s all that youthful energy?”
“Someone kept me up all night.”
>The morning sun is just rising over the horizon, coloring the sky with its orange glow and tinging a few stray clouds golden
>You spend a moment taking it in, appreciating the beauty, and trying to ignore how incredibly sore you all are over
>”Good haul,” Night Watch says, as she peers into the open funnel of one of the traps. “Stop standing there and bring me the box already.”
>You’d asked her last night at dusk, as she’d laid the traps in the waning light, why she didn’t just buy a bucket of farm raised crickets down at the store
>She’d looked at you as if you were, well, batshit. “You nuts? Nothing but wild-caught for my baby. She gets nothing but the best.”
>Night Watch had a certain kind of fervor whenever she talked about her daughter, Cricket
>You knew she was super proud of her, going off and pursuing her dream of being a music star
>But you could tell she was sad too, since her filly had left Hollow Shades to travel from city to city
>You still hadn’t been formally introduced, encountering Cricket only once, very briefly before a show
>It had surprised you how demure and uncertain she’d seemed, compared to her brash and bold mother
>”What if... they don’t like me?” you remember hearing her saying, as you hung back by the door of the green room
>”Then they’re morons,” Night Watch replied. “I’ve met some dumbasses in my time, but there’s no pony dumb enough not to like you.”
>A small smile had broken across the filly’s face, just as a pony wedged its face past you. “On in five, Cricket.”
>A moment later you’d heard the MC announcing the next act
>The audience reply was thunderous, morphing from cheers to a steadily building chant of Cricket’s name
>”You hear that?” Night Watch had asked. “They love you. Equestria’s gonna love you. And I love you, too. You’re gonna do great.”
>The two had embraced, the filly tucking her head against her mother’s neck. “Thanks, mom. I love you, too.”
>Then Cricket was trotting out the door, leaving you and Night Watch behind the scenes 
>You’d never really seen this side of Night Watch before, as she’d stood backstage and watched her daughter play in front of thousands of ponies
>For once her hard features softened, her eyes unnarrowed, and she seemed to relax
>For just a little while, she looked like a mother, not a guard pony
>At the time, you didn’t know what had been in the box she’d placed in the backstage fridge for Cricket to have after the show
>But now that you did, you were all too happy to help Night Watch be the best mother she could be
>You tear your gaze away from the morning sky, and force your tired body to move
“Coming.”