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The twins had, in fact, just gotten back from exploring Starfest. They'd each picked up a new charm - purple for Mason, yellow for Madeline - and had plenty of treats and picked up other treasures, too. They were just enjoying being back in the air conditioning when there came a frantic banging on the door, followed by the chirp of Madeline's phone. The two of them raised their eyebrows at each other, and moved as one unit toward the door, all lingering relaxation forgotten.

Mason got there first, because his legs were longer, but Madeline processed what she saw first.

"Tiff!" Madeline squeaked, pulling their cousin in immediately. Mason shut the door behind them, then opened it again, glancing up and down the street to make sure she hadn't been followed. He'd have to power up to check by way of radar, but--

Mason! came Madeline's voice in his head, and he shut the door, locked it. He rushed into the kitchen, where Madeline had busted out the under-the-sink first aid kit already and was working on cleaning--

"Oh God," Mason said, eyes going wide. "Who--what happened--"

"This is going to sting," Madeline said, with all the ruthless efficiency of an emergency room nurse, before she dabbed the alcohol-drenched cotton ball over the wound. It was only because she was able to sort of - put herself aside that she wasn't shaking, or throwing up, or just simply screaming, because it looked like something had tried to take her baby cousin's head off.

Mason stared at his sister, then blinked and shook his head. Swallowed. Tiffany was - alive, but - clearly, something had attacked her. This was exactly - exactly - what they'd tried to warn her against, and it was a testament to how petrified his sister was that she wasn't crowing 'I told you so' at the top of her lungs.

With all the seriousness appropriate to the moment, Mason asked, "Was it a giant demon chicken?"

"What frogs?" Madeline said, at the same time Mason said, "Oh God, the frogs," which made them both look at each other with mirroring expressions of confusion. Mason had fought the frogs - Madeline had not, apparently.

"Doesn't matter," Madeline said quickly, shaking her head. "Mason, get her a blanket. The Scary Movie Blanket," she said, and Mason nodded before he darted into the living room. From a hollow footrest he pulled the biggest, fluffiest blanket he had ever encountered anywhere, and returned to the kitchen with it.

"You're okay," Mason said as he gently wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. "You survived. That's what matters, okay? You did the right thing." He'd have more questions later - about this guy, this bug, and most importantly this not-dead guy, but that was for later. Tiff could barely string two sentences together, so he let Mads continue her work and settled next to her, one hand on her back for warmth and security. "You did the right thing. You're okay."

Madeline finished with the bandage, applying it as best she could to the injury; she didn't think it would scar, but that would largely depend on if Tiffany could stop picking at it long enough to let it heal.

"There," she said, setting back to examine her top to bottom. Not seeing any more blood, Madeline packed up the first aid kit and put it away, filled a glass of cold water, and returned to her family, giving Tiffany the (plastic) glass to drink. "Here," she said, voice gentle, as if a moment ago she hadn't been a whirling dervish of emergency healthcare. "Drink something." Gently, she brushed a strand of Tiffany's hair behind her ear, and let herself take a deep breath. "Mase's right. You're okay. You're spending the night here, and you're okay." There was no question, no invitation - it was simply What Was Happening. No way was she letting her baby cousin out of her sight after all this.

Text her parents, Mads thought to Mason, who gave a nearly-imperceptible nod to show he'd heard.

"C'mon," Madeline said, giving her a reassuring smile. "Let's get you into bed, okay? Get you all snuggled under the covers. You can borrow some of my PJs--I just got a new set, and they'll probably look better on you than me anyway."

"Of course," Madeline said immediately, giving Tiffany a warm, reassuring smile. "Keep drinking that water, and I'll get it set up, okay?" Madeline, in fact, was a stone-cold horse girl, and thus Equestria Girls had been on rotation since the second it came out. Madeline got up and disappeared into the living room, leaving Mason alone with their cousin for just a moment.

"Hey," Mason said, when Madeline was in the next room. He scooted around so that he was in front of her, and took her free hand in both of his. "Tiff. Can you listen to me for a second?" Mason squeezed her hands gently. "This is important." Mason waited for her to be looking at him, unfocused as her eyes were. "You are safe. You did the right thing. You survived. That is your number one job always, okay, and you did that. I'm so, so proud of you for that." Mason's heart gave a little clench, and his eyebrows knit slightly. "It might feel - however you feel in the next couple of days...it's okay. You can feel how you feel. But it's important that you understand that at the end of the day, you lived, and everything else is secondary to that."

From the living room, there came the all-too-familiar theme music from Equestria Girls. Madeline had made them watch that movie approximately one zillion times; he knew the lines as well as his sister did. "C'mon, kid," Mason said, standing up without letting go of Tiffany's hand. "Let's go watch some ponies and..." Mason paused, darted away from Tiffany for a moment to rummage around the freezer and then a nearby drawer. He returned to his cousin with a big 3-gallon-sized store-brand tub of rainbow sorbet, three spoons, and a big grin.

"Mads says we only bust this out in case of emergencies," he whispered playfully. "And I think this definitely qualifies."

Because the twins were intimately familiar with this movie, and because they were consummate actors, and because they had magic telepathy earrings equipped at all times, they were able to have an entire silent conversation, without ever missing a beat of reacting to the movie in front of them.

I told her. I told her! We both told her!

I know, Mads. But we can't say I told you so about this ever if we want her to trust us.

But we DID tell her. She never should have been out alone at this time of night! Why didn't she call us?

Because she had to learn the hard way, because she's 15 years old, Mads. I think it's safe to say she did learn, though. I don't think this will happen again.

What did she say about a bug? A bug did that to her?

I don't think it was a regular bug. She said there was a bug and a guy, and there was a guy who was mostly dead. For sure it was Chaos somewhere along the way. Should I go out and try to find whatever guy she was talking about?

The bad guy??? Mason?? Are you out of your mind??

No! The guy she said wasn't totally dead! Stop yelling!

Well, it doesn't matter, because if you try to leave this house, I will beat you to death with your own shillelagh. Do you understand me, Mason Larch?

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiine fine fine, quit yelling!

Eventually, the movie was over, and so was Tiffany. She was curled up under the blanket, with her head resting on Mads' shoulder, breathing evenly. The twins let the movie play through to the end, and when Madeline gave him the nod, Mason carefully, gently, lifted her into his arms, so slowly that he almost wasn't moving at all, just so she wouldn't wake up. He carried her upstairs to one of the spare, unused bedrooms, and settled her into bed. Madeline trailed behind and took her shoes off, tucked her into bed, plugged in Tiffany's phone, and set her glass of water on the nightstand. Once they were sure she was settled, the twins crept out of the room and into their own bedrooms.

Madeline paused at her door and looked over to Mason, who had stopped when she did. She whispered, "Do you think she's going to be okay?"

Mason hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah," he whispered back. "She's one of us. She's a tough kid. Do you think...do you think that guy she saw...do you think he died?"

Madeline grimaced, voice low. "If Chaos was involved? Probably." She sighed and shook her head. "Don't tell her that, though."

Mason rolled his eyes, as if to say duhhh. "Do you think she got the Chaos guy's name?" Madeline shrugged helplessly and Mason sighed. "Yeah. I guess it doesn't matter now. How long do you think we can keep her here?"

Madeline shrugged again. "She can stay as long as she needs," Madeline said firmly, mouth setting in a grim line. "You texted her parents, right?" At Mason's nod, Madeline continued, "Whatever she says she wants to do - if she doesn't want to go out anymore, that has to be okay. She shouldn't be going out."

"You mean, shouldn't be going out alone?"

Madeline narrowed her eyes slightly. "I said what I said." The twins stared at each other for a long minute; Mason broke first, as he always did, and looked away, letting out a sigh as he cast his eyes up to the ceiling.

"It doesn't matter right now," he said, doing his best to sidestep what could end up being a pretty intense disagreement that would have to be carried out completely in whispers. "What matters is - she survived, and she came to us. That's not nothing."

Madeline nodded, hesitated, then crossed over and wrapped her arms around his middle in a hug. He wrapped his arms around her in return and kissed the top of her head. "I don't know what I would've done if...if something had happened to her. She's--she's Tiff."

"I know," Mason murmured, giving her a reassuring squeeze. "But hey - she survived. She lived, and she came to us. That's all that matters right now, right?" Reluctantly, Madeline nodded, and Mason gave her another tight hug. "Get some sleep, Mads. She'll need us on our A-game tomorrow."

And so the twins departed into their own bedrooms, but neither of them slept that well - Madeline, for worry, and Mason, because he couldn't get the gosh darn Equestria Girls music out of his head. (And worry, too. But mostly the Equestria Girls thing.)