“Come along, Beryl.”
 
Marble Pie gently nudged her son ahead of her as she walked towards a booth. It was his first time coming to the marketplace with her in recent memory, and of course he wanted to look at everything he could set his eyes on. All the new sights, sounds, and smells were sure to pique a child’s curiosity, after all.
 
“But Mama! I wanna go look at Auntie’s candy stand!” Beryl turned his attention towards the colorful booth at the other end of the market.
 
His mother gave him a slightly firmer nudge. “Mmhm! When we’re done buying groceries for Aunt Limestone, okay? Right now you need to stay where I can see you.”
 
“Okay…” Beryl reluctantly followed her towards the dull, boring old grocery booths. As Marble turned to sift through the items being sold, Beryl looked around for somepony to talk to.
 

 
“Thank you for shopping with us!”
 
”Mmhm!” Marble hoofed a cluster of bits over to the clerk and collected the last of her bags. Now she could take Beryl to Pinkie’s candy stand as she’d promised and then go home.
 
…But where was he?
 
”B-Beryl!” Marble whipped her head around, searching for her child. Apparently he had wandered off while she was concentrating on her groceries. Oh, she should have kept better watch on him! What if he was lost? Or hurt? Or-
 
“Hi Mama! I made a friend!”
 
There he was! Marble turned towards the sound and found Beryl, talking next to a booth with an unfamiliar unicorn mare…
 
”Beryl!” Marble galloped up to him. “W-we don’t talk to strangers!”
 
“But Mama, She’s really nice!” He smiled up at her with the pure innocence of a child. “Her name is Indigo Dreams! Indigo, this is my Mama!”
 
The unicorn looked up at her with clouded, gray eyes. “Oh! Nice to meet you. You must be…?”
 
”M-Marble,” She politely offered a hoof for a shake. “Indigo Dreams?”
 
”Yes,” She declined the hoofshake. “Sorry, I can’t. My husband will find out…”
 
”Oh…” Marble slowly lowered her hoof, briefly taking notice of Indigo’s slightly swollen face. “Your eye-“
 
”Anyway,” Indigo quickly changed the subject. “Is he yours? So sorry if I-“
 
“No, no, it’s fine,” Marble smiled reassuringly. “Thank you for helping me keep him entertained. I think he likes you!” She looked down at Beryl, who was hugging the mare’s leg. “Come, Beryl. Let’s go see Auntie and go home. I’m sure Limestone is waiting for us!”
 
”Okay. Bye, Miss Indigo!” Beryl let go and trotted off after his mother. “She was really nice! She said she comes here every week. Can I come back and see her?”
 
”Mmhm,” Marble nodded absentmindedly.
 
But she couldn’t get her mind off that mare. The way she sadly refused a simple hoofshake in the name of her husband…her swollen, purple eye…there must have been something going on she wasn’t telling. It wasn’t Marble’s place to pry, but she was worried about poor Indigo. Nopony should have to go through that.
 
She couldn’t get the mare’s puffy, blue and purple hair out of her mind either. Or her pale, purple coat…the same shade as Beryl’s yellow. Why, the two of them together looked almost related.
 
Related. The word rang in Marble’s head. Her adopted son, who she had found on a doorstep with no parents, who stuck out like a bright beacon among her gray-toned family, actually bore a resemblance to this mare. It had to be a coincidence. It couldn’t be true…could it?