In Every Cloud

After he felt he had run far enough, Silver Lining curled up next to a bush. While he was upset and alone, he was still trying to not burst into tears. Instead, he managed a steady pace of sniffling as we sorted out his thoughts.

Once again, he had no idea where he was. As soon as he left the town’s limits, he headed straight for a wooded area where it would be difficult for somebody to find…

His assumptions were short-lived as a strange white and grey striped pony dressed in gold jewellery came from behind a tree and approached him. He vaguely identified her as a zebra before she started speaking to him.

“Little foal, please tell me why you’ve come into these woods to cry,” she asked in an accented rhyme.

He sniffed. “Who… who are you?”

“Zecora is my name. Please tell me the same.”

He turned his head away for a moment. “S-Silver. Silver Lining.”

“Silver, how’d you come to be upset in wild Everfree?”

Silver looked up at her. “This is the Everfree Forest?”

Zecora nodded in response. Silver figured that rhyming out a “yes” would’ve be too wordy.

He turned his head away again. “Just as well. I belong out here with the monsters.”

Zecora frowned in confusion before a distant rumble drew her attention, glancing deeper into the forest. “I do not think we should speak here; a thunderstorm is drawing near. I do not know your troubles, but… perhaps some shelter in my hut?”

After a brief pause, Silver solemnly nodded. “Okay.”

Pinkie Pie groaned in annoyance. “How could nobody have seen him? Green unicorn colt with a dark grey mane! That’s not exactly hard to notice!”

Applejack frowned. “He did want to be alone. Wouldn’t surprise me if he was avoiding people.”

“Yeah, but were would he be th-” Pinkie’s train of thought was cut off when she noticed a familiar-looking mule walking by. “Hi, Cranky!” she said, waving hello.

Cranky Doodle stopped walking and turned to face her. “Oh. Hello, Pinkie. What’s new?”

“A colt, actually. Green with a dark grey mane. Seen one of those around?”

Cranky nodded affirmatively. “Yeah, saw him not long ago by Carousel Boutique. He got his Cutie Mark, I pointed it out to him, and then he started running… that-a-way,” he said, pointing his hoof in the general direction. In relation to the Boutique, mind you.”

“Thanks for telling us,” Applejack responded, heading towards the Boutique.

Pinkie followed suit with her signature hopping. “Catch you later, Cranky.”

As they approached Carousel Boutique, they heard a loud “Oh come on!” It was Rainbow Dash, messing about with a now silent, white cloud.

“What’s the matter, Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow Dash poked the cloud once again. “Somebody messed with the cloud I hid away. Took all the bang out of it. Now it’s a dud.” In her frustration, she gave it a swift buck that dissipated it.

“Have you seen a green colt around here?” Pinkie asked.

“Why?” Rainbow asked. “Is he the responsible for this?”

Pinkie thought for a moment. “Well, Cranky did say that he just got his Cutie Mark, so… maybe?”

“In any case, we need to figure out where he disappeared to,” said Applejack.

“Cranky said he ran that-a-way,” Pinkie said, pointing her hoof in the proportionate direction he had indicated. She then turned to look where she was pointing. “And that-a-way leads to…” She paused, realizing she was looking towards the Everfree Forest. “Oh, fudgebubbles.”

Applejack looked up at Rainbow Dash, who was still hovering in the air. “Rainbow Dash, get Fluttershy and search the forest from the air. We’ll get the others and search from the ground.”

“On it!” Rainbow said, darting towards Fluttershy’s house.

Pinkie Pie frowned. “Why would he take off after getting his Cutie Mark?”

Zecora listened quietly to the young colt’s tale. His story seemed basic enough, though the implications he delved from it seemed ludicrous to her. She didn’t tell him that, however. He was upset enough without somebody “making fun” of him. Besides, given what she told him, maybe…

“You make… potions, right? Is it possible to… purify me?”

As she thought. Zecora smiled. “I will see what I can do. Let me prepare a brew.” A harmless placebo might help to settle his fears.

Suddenly, the door to her hut burst open, Twilight Sparkle’s head popping in shortly thereafter. “Zecora, there’s a young colt missing in the forest. Could you help us look…” her statement cut off as she noticed Silver sitting in the corner. “Oh. That was easy. He’s in here, everyone.”

Zecora was surprised when not only Twilight entered, but also Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and a unicorn mare she did not recognize. “Your search, it seems, was quite intense… and now my hut is rather dense,” she dryly muttered as the group squeezed inside.

The unfamiliar unicorn nudged her way to the front. “Silver? Silver, what’s wrong?” she asked in a worried tone.

The young colt withdrew slightly and looked away from the group. “S-stay back! I’m evil!”

Everyone but Zecora made a collective exclamation of confusion. The unicorn, who Zecora figured was Silver’s mother, started to raise her roof comfortingly, but withdrew when he twitched back. “What are you talking about? What makes you think that?”

“Because of… this,” the young colt said as he turned his head towards his Cutie Mark.

“How does a Cutie Mark make you evil? It’s something to celebrate!” Pinkie said with a little too much enthusiasm.

Silver slunk back even more after she said that.

Applejack stepped forth. “What Pinkie means is that finding out your talent is a good thing. I have a little sister, Apple Bloom. She and her friends have been obsessed with getting their Cutie Marks for a long time now. It’s something to be proud of, not ashamed.”

“You don’t understand!” Silver Lining snapped. “I got it by scaring some fillies with a cloud! From being a bully! My talent is being evil! I’m a foal, so I started out small, but clearly my destiny is to become some horrible villain the Princesses have to lock away!”

“Oh, come now,” Rarity calmly stated. “Aren’t you dramatizing this a bit?”

Silver just glared at her, and the rest of the group collectively provided disproving stares.

“What? It’s true.”

Twilight shook her head and turned back to Silver. “Look, just because your talent manifested in a bad way doesn’t mean you’re evil. I speak from experience. When I got my Cutie Mark, my magic went completely out of control. Turned my parents into plants and everything. It was only through the intervention of Princess Celestia that I managed to get it under control.”

“Not helping!” Silver Lining exclaimed in a skyward shout, his frustrated tone somewhere between annoyance and distress.

“My point is that a bad start doesn’t mean you’re going to get banished to the moon or locked into Tartarus or whatever bad scenario you’re imag-”

“Shut up!” Silver barked. “All of you! Shut up! Just leave me alone!”

As he said the final word, his horn glowed in a silvery light that engulfed him in a flash. When the light dissipated, he was gone, having teleported away.

Silver’s mother looked around frantically. “Silver? Silver, where are you? Silver Lining!”

She ran out the door and bolted off, clearly hoping that she went in the right direction. The rest of the group trailed behind her.

As Twilight Sparkle followed after them, Zecora shouted out one last warning. “Beware of more than just your mouth; a storm approaches from the south!”