Chapters Whenever there's trouble, there's always a Silver Lining
“What the hell!” Silver shouted as he stared into the vast unknown that was Equestria. He looked up to the sky, “Come on, God, I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but this is cruel and unusual punishment. Couldn’t you just let the angel coin pick Angel? He would have loved this place and I’m talking to myself, aren’t I?”
Silver sighed, “Alright Silver, calm down.” He groaned. “And I’m using Angel’s damn pony name for me. I’m literally going insane. Calm down, Silver, just breathe, and the answer will come.”
He took a deep breath and felt strangely calmer.
“Good, good. Now, look at your surroundings to see what to do next.”
He turned around and came face-to-face with three fillies. One was yellow with a red bow, the other was orange with wings, and the last one was white with a horn. The human and the ponies stared at each other, neither one of them dared to breathe. The one with the bow gulped and took a step forward. It held out a hoof,
“Um, hiya.” The pony said awkwardly, “I’m Applebloom. These are my friends Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. We mean you no harm.”
Silver stared at the ponies for a moment longer before a squeaking noise escaped his mouth and he fell face first, unconscious.
“You killed it.” She said blatantly.
“I didn’t do anything!” Applebloom said nervously.
Sweetie Belle walked toward the creature and observed it curiously. She wondered how her sister would react to the strange clothing the creature had on. She then kicked it in the stomach, and there was a groan in response. The three fillies smiled, “It’s alive!”
“What do you think it is?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“I think it’s a monkey.” Applebloom said.
“But it doesn’t have a tail.” Scootaloo interjected, “And it’s wearing clothes.”
“Maybe it’s a special type of monkey?”
“Or,” Scootaloo suddenly sounded excited, “maybe we just discovered a new type of animal!”
All three fillies instinctively looked at their flanks, but it still remained blank.
“It looks like we didn’t discover anything new.” Sweetie Belle said glumly.
“Why don’t we bring this thing to Fluttershy to see what this thing is.” Applebloom said hopefully, “We could get our Cutie Marks in animal study.”
“Alright then, crusaders,” Scootaloo said, “let’s get this thing to Fluttershy pronto!”
The three fillies grabbed a piece of the fabric from the creature and started to pull with all of their might. After about a minute of fruitless pulling, they let go.
“What now?” Sweetie Belle panted.
Applebloom spoke up, “New plan: We get our wagon, bring it here, put the creature into the wagon, and then bring it to Fluttershy. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” the two other fillies said. With a nod of determination, the three friends rocketed toward their first destination.
“Plan ‘Pretend to be Asleep to Fool Others’ never fails.” Silver said confidently. He sighed, “Now what?” He looked at the direction the fillies went, “I guess I’ll have to find civilization.”
Silver grimaced; Angel had shown him a season of My Little Pony episodes before he accepted that Silver wouldn’t be enthusiastic about ponies. With a season’s worth of knowledge, Silver knew the food the ponies had: flowers, vegetables, fruits, and enough sugar to make everyone in Minnesota diabetic.
“I’m gonna die.” He said emotionlessly, “No human could ever survive with only pony food.” Silver looked at the angel coin, “I guess I could wish for some food. Some meat, some grain…”
…
He slapped himself for his stupidity, “or I could just wish to go back home.” He smiled, but then he remembered what Angel said: One wish per generation. Silver shrugged it off, “But I’m not part of his family.” He reasoned, “So that means I still have a wish. Plus, maybe this place,” he gestured to Equestria, “has different rules for the coin.”
The coin reached its highest point and landed on the ground, revealing the angel lifting his right arm.
“Okay, no problem.” Silver said as he picked up the coin. There was a tone of worry in his voice, “Let’s try this again; I wish to go back to Earth. Right!”
The coin fell again and showed left.
“I wish to not die in this place! Left!” Silver said desperately. The coin soared into the air, when suddenly an owl swooped past, took the angel coin in the air, and flew away.
…
Silver pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned deeply, “An owl took the angel coin.” He saw the owl fly in the general direction the ponies went, “An owl took the angel coin.” He repeated. He saw the owl slowly become a dot.
Silver then bared his teeth, “My dinner just took the angel coin!” he yelled before sprinting after the flying bird/meal.
“Can’t you go any faster, Scoots?” Applebloom said, “We still need to get back to it.”
“Then you better hold on to your lunch.” Scootaloo replied with a grin. She flapped her wings vigorously and torpedoed past the surrounding apple trees. They were making great time when Fluttershy suddenly appeared in their paths.
“Look out!” Scootaloo shouted as she immediately flapped her wings in the opposite direction to stop. Fluttershy saw the oncoming ponies and gasped in fright. She stayed put as she nervously tried to decide whether to jump left, right, or fly up. In the end, Fluttershy just closed her eyes and braced for impact, but Scootaloo managed to stop the scooter and wagon inches before it slammed into the yellow pegasus.
“Fluttershy, what are you doing here?” Applebloom asked.
Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes and saw that she wasn’t trampled. Sighing in relief, she answered, “I was making sure the Vampire Fruit Bats were adjusting to their new environment. I’m happy to say that they are.” She said with a smile as she gestured to the acre that had been closed off for the apple-sucking bats. She turned back to the girls, “What has you girls in such a hurry?”
“We were actually looking for you.” Sweetie Belle said.
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo added, “we found this strange animal and we wanted you to tell us about it.”
“I’d be happy to.” Fluttershy said gently, “Where is this little one?”
“This thing we found is anything but little.” Applebloom said excitedly, “It was at least three times my size and it was wearing clothes.”
“Really?” Fluttershy asked curiously.
“Eeyup, and when I tried to talk to it, it fell forward.”
“Oh my.” The shy pegasus said worriedly, “The poor dear was probably scared. Was it okay?”
“I think so.” Sweetie Belle said, “I mean, I kicked it and-”
“You kicked a poor, frightened creature?!” Fluttershy cried, mortified.
“Not hard.” Sweetie Belle said quickly, “I kicked it and it sort of groaned.”
“It must be injured. Girls,” Fluttershy face turned from anxious to determined, surprising the three fillies, “take me to him, or her. Do you know what gender it was?”
“Nope.” The girls said. Scootaloo readied her wings as Fluttershy hopped into the wagon.
“Hold on, everypony!” Scootaloo announced.
Fluttershy lost some of her bravado as she looked around the wagon, “Um, hold on to what?”
Scootaloo shot off with her scooter and the wagon shot off after it. Fluttershy was not ready for the sudden burst of speed that she was nearly thrown off. Luckily, Applebloom and Sweetie managed to hold onto Fluttershy as all four of them left Sweet Apple Acres and went towards the strange creature.
“I’ve got *pant* to start *pant* exercising *pant* more!”
He stopped and doubled over, trying to catch his breath. He looked up and was shock to see that he was standing at the edge of what appeared to be a town.
“What?” Silver said, flabbergasted, “But, I was nowhere near a town last time I checked. When did-how did-” He sighed, “Screw it; it’s cartoon logic.” He looked behind him and saw that the sun was almost completely gone.
The town was deserted, which was good news to Silver since he did not want to be seen by the citizens. That was the main reason he didn’t want him or Angel to go to Equestria; the ponies. Angel wouldn’t believe him, but Silver rationalized that one of the worst places a human could be is in Equestria. Silver decided this when he watched the episode where the ponies dealt with the zebra. The fillies seemed not to mind, but Silver chalked it up to children’s innocence. If grown ponies would be that fearful and aggressive with something that looked different, but was part of the same race, how would they react to something completely alien to them?
Silver snuck his way through the town. Thankfully, there were a lot of hiding places that Silver used whenever he saw a pony poking its head out of a window.
“Where is that damn bird?” Silver growled after throwing himself into a bush when a pony came out of its home to take out the trash.
“Who?”
“The bird that took my coin.”
…
Still in his bush, Silver turned to see the owl behind him. The animal was holding the coin with his feet.
“What’s up?” Silver said calmly, “You mind giving me my coin back?”
“Who?”
“You’re just trying to piss me off, aren’t you?”
The owl stared at the human for a second before flying off. Silver watched the owl fly for a while before going into the window of a…giant tree.
“How on Earth, or Equestria, did I miss that?” Silver thought aloud as he stepped in front of the towering tree. It was decorated with windows, a small door, and a sign with an open book.
“Wait a second…” Silver said slowly, “I know who lives here. The main character…uh…let’s see…least favorite book…” he snapped his finger, “Twilight! That’s who lives here!” His moment of victory was short lived when something dawned on him, “Crap! Of course the owl would belong to the smart one. How the hell do I sneak in?”
He racked his brain over possible ideas; each one becoming stupider and stupider.
“Come on, Silver, you have a slightly above average brain. You can outsmart innocent ponies! Just think!”
The crusaders and Fluttershy finally arrived to the place where the fillies left the creature, except it was completely creature-less.
“What do you think happened?” Scootaloo asked, searching the empty pasture.
“Maybe it teleported?” Sweetie Belle said.
“But it didn’t have a horn.” Scootaloo retorted.
“Maybe it doesn’t need a horn to use magic.”
“What do you think, Fluttershy?” Applebloom asked.
Fluttershy didn’t answer. She was staring at the ground intently. She suddenly looked up and pointed to the direction of Ponyville, “It went that way.”
“How do you know?” the trio said in unison.
“Tracks.” Fluttershy said, pointing to very strange hoofprints.
“You know how to track animals?” Applebloom asked, “That’s amazing!”
“Not really.” Fluttershy blushed, “After almost losing Angel Bunny at Celestia’s and Luna’s old castle, I wanted to learn how to find my animal friends in case any of them wandered off.”
“Then lead the way.” Scootaloo said excitedly.‘This is my dumbest idea ever.’ Silver thought, ‘This is even dumber then the time I used condoms as balloons for the school dance.’
Silver went up to the tree and knocked on the door. He waited for a couple of seconds before it opened. A lavender pony with dark blue hair and assorted highlights opened the door. Silver knew that this was Twilight.
“Hello,” she said, “how can I-”
She stopped when she got a good look at who was knocking. Silver didn’t blame her for looking confused; it wasn’t every day a human on all fours covered in a grey blanket from head to toe knocks on your door. The blanket formed a small crack around Silver’s face that hid it and allowed him to see. Silver was also surprised to see Twilight. Last time he checked, she was a unicorn.
‘Why does she have wings’ he thought.
“Hello,” Silver said, “I saw the sign and was wondering if this really was a library.”
“Yes, yes it is.” Twilight said excitedly as she let the human, or cloaked pony to her, in.
“Sorry that I’m disturbing you so late.”
“Don’t be.” She insisted, “There is no such thing as time when it comes to learning something new. Besides, you’re probably the first real customer I had in months.”
‘Well, that’s depressing.’ the human thought cynically.
Silver crawled into the library and saw that it was much bigger than the door let on. He pretended to search the rows of books, but he was really keeping an eye out for the owl.
“Is there anything you’re looking for in particular?” Twilight asked helpfully.
“Angels.” Silver said airily.
Twilight blinked, “I’m sorry, but what are Angels?”
Silver turned to the unicorn, “You know, religion.”
“What’s religion?”
‘No wonder this place is a supposed Utopia; there’s no religion to divide them.’
“Never mind.” Silver said, “How about books on myths?”
“Is that what religion is?” Twilight said conversationally as she trotted to one of the book sections, “A myth?”
“Kind of.”
Twilight used her magic to levitate a particularly large book from the top shelf and to Silver, “This should give you an insight to every myth known to pony kind.”
“Thank you.” Silver said as he eyed the magic aura around the book. He carefully engulfed the book with his cloak and tucked it under his arm, “This will make for some excellent bedtime reading.”
Twilight chuckled lightly at the joke, “Is there any other book you’d like?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. Do you have a book on owls ?” Silver emphasized the last part, “I’m really curious about them recently.”
Twilight nodded and quickly pulled out a book from the shelf behind her with magic. She handed it to Silver.
“Fascinating creatures, aren’t they?” Silver said casually, but he was secretly holding his breath.
“I should think so, considering I have one for a pet.” Twilight said happily.
“Really?” Silver said with fake enthusiasm, “Would you mind if I can look at it?”
“Not at all.” Twilight turned her head to the upper levels of the library, “Owlicious, can you come down here? Somepony wants to meet you.”
“Who?” the owl hooted as it flew down to the ground floor. Owlicious saw his master and then turned his attention to the cloaked human. Owlicious then swooped into the blanket and came face to face with Silver.
“Owlicious, what are you doing?” Twilight cried in surprise at her pet’s strange behavior. Under the blanket, Silver was staring daggers at the owl, who looked back at the human curiously. The animal then nodded its head and showed the angel coin clutched in its legs. The owl dropped it, left the human, and returned to his master.
“Sorry about that.” Twilight said as Silver pocketed the coin, “Owlicious is usually more considerate of other ponys’ personal space.”
“No worries.” Silver said with a slight chuckle, “If you’ll excuse me, I best be going.”
“Okay, all I need is your library card.”
“What library card?”
“Don’t worry.” Twilight said as she used her magic to summon a camera (‘this place has technology?’ Silver thought ), “If you don’t have one, I could make one for you easily.” She readied the camera and then chuckled, “You know, your library card would be a lot better if you took off the cloak.”
“Yeah…that is not gonna happen.”
“Don’t be shy.” She insisted, “How about just the hood?”
Before the human could answer, the library door burst and three fillies tumbled in.
“Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo,” Twilight said, surprised, “What are you three doing here?”
“Is it here, girls?” Fluttershy asked as she poked her head in.
“Is what here?” Twilight asked, completely flabbergasted by the current events unfolding.
“We’re looking for some strange animal.” Sweetie Belle said.
“Yeah, and Fluttershy tracked it here.” Scootaloo added.
“I haven’t seen any strange animal around here.” Twilight said thoughtfully, “The only other living thing I’ve seen all day is…um,” she turned to Silver, “I’m sorry, but I never got your name.”
Silver responded in a lot of incoherent words; he was in a room with 5 ponies. He saw that the only exit was blocked by Fluttershy.
“Okay,” he said as he dropped his books, “I think I should be on my way. You all seem very busy, so…” he made his way to the door. In his haste, he tripped over his not-so-perfect disguise. Instinctively, he clamped his hands over the pocket with the coin so it would fall out. He fell to the floor and, to his horror, the blanket fell off him.
Silver lied there, in full view of the ponies. Twilight and Fluttershy stared at the human with their mouths hanging opened. The three fillies, however, were chanting, “We found it! We found it!”
Silver slowly got to his feet and picked up the blanket. He cleared his throat, “Okay, we are all intelligent, sensible beings. Let’s just-”
Silver threw the blanket to Twilight, catching her off guard. He then went sprinting to the door, which was still blocked by Fluttershy.
“Move!” he ordered. Fluttershy snapped out of her daze and obeyed the command. She jumped out of the way as Silver baseball slid out of the door and into the town.
“LATERS!” Silver shouted behind him as he ran away from the dumbstruck ponies.
Whenever there's trouble, there's always a Silver Lining
Chp 3: Lessons are common in this world
Running was something Silver never excelled in. He could walk long distances without breaking a sweat, but he could never beat anyone in a race. However, when Silver was running for his life, then he could outstrip anyone. And so it was that the human found himself catching his breath with Ponyville far behind him.
He was sitting by the edge of a large and sinister-looking forest. Silver knew that the forest was called the Everfree Forest; the only terrifying place in a world of pastel ponies. He had the angel coin in his hands and he was pondering how it functioned. After several minutes, an unorthodox idea formed in his head.
Silver stood up and readied the coin. He flipped it and as it flew up, Silver said,
“I wish I knew how to use the angel coin. Right!”
Silver caught the coin and it showed the angel holding up its right arm. Silver waited with baited breath. After a moment, something hit his head. As the human cried in pain, he saw an object fall to the ground; it was a pocket book.
Curious, Silver picked up the book and read the title: Angel coins for dummies! (That means you!)
“That’s nice.” Silver said sarcastically. He opened it and read the first page:
Hello, if you’re reading this, then that means you are a smart monkey who decided to learn more about the Angel Coin. It also means that you are part of a family that was blessed with this wonderful gift.
Silver smirked; he wondered what the writer of this book would say if he/she saw that the coin was in possession of an un-blessed family member. He turned the page:
The first thing to know about the coin is that it grants wishes (duh!). The coin is the single most powerful thing ever bestowed on human kind, for its wish-granting capability is nearly limitless.
‘I kind of figured that.’ Silver thought as he looked at his surroundings.
Secondly, after each wish, the angel coin uses up energy to grant it. The bigger the wish, the more energy it needs. Don’t fret, the coin does regain energy, but it takes a long time to recharge, so choose your wishes wisely.
Finally, these coins have a somewhat mind of their own. They aren’t a living creature, but they have a very small sense of what’s going on. My guess to why this happened was that each coin was blessed by the big chief upstairs (my dad) and an angel (hence the name). A small piece of the angel resides in the coin, which gives it its power. So remember, when making a wish, the angel can sometimes choose whether to allow the wish to come true.
Have fun!
Silver turned the page and found something really strange; a power meter. The meter was empty and flashing red. Under it, it read: Geez, what did you wish for. The power is nearly drained! It’s gonna take 6 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 23 hours, 18 minutes, and 47 seconds to recharge fully. That is if you make absolutely no other wishes. So, good luck with that!
“Damn.” Silver sighed; he was stuck in this world for 6 months. He didn’t really know what to do now. He felt empty. He felt alone…
Silver giggled, “My God, I’m such a pessimistic bastard.” He giggled again as he turned the next page, which had a black string. Under it, it read:
This string is for your coin. Just place the coin near it, and the two will combine into a stylish accessory!
Silver took the string and then pocketed the book. He held the coin and the string together, where they instantly merged. He shook the accessory vigorously, but the coin wouldn’t fall. He then reached for the coin, and it came off easily.
“Neat.” Silver said as he put on his new necklace.
*Crack*
Silver’s heart stopped; the sound was behind him…in the Everfree Forest.
“Do you see it, Fluttershy?!” Twilight called.
“No.” Fluttershy answered, “What about you?”
“If I’d seen it, then I wouldn’t be asking you, would I?” Twilight said, slightly irritated.
Fluttershy hung her head, “I’m sorry.”
Twilight sighed, “Don’t be; I’m the one who should be sorry. It’s not your fault that there is a possibly dangerous animal loose in Ponyville.”
“I never said it was dangerous.” Fluttershy insisted, “I just said that it might try to protect itself if it felt threatened.”
“I hope Spike is having better luck than we are.” Twilight said tiredly. She had tasked her dragon assistant to search the entire library for anything that remotely talked about, ‘smart, tall, clothe-wearing primates’.
“Don’t worry, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, “Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo are getting the rest of the girls, and together, we’ll find Chimpy.”
Twilight turned her head, “Chimpy?”
“Well, we can’t keep on calling the strange animal ‘it’. It just sounds mean.”
Silver’s jaw dropped, “What the literal buck? And why am I using Angel’s pony version for the word f-”
Two more wolves appeared and they all seemed to be made out of wood, which didn’t make them any less intimidating.
“So in a world of colorful ponies, I’m gonna get mauled by ferocious, demonic wolves. Maybe I should have watched more of the show…”
The wolves lunged and Silver screamed with as much dignity as he could muster. In mid-lunge, there was a sudden series of loud bangs. The animals dropped to the floor and began to whine in pain as they tried to cover their ears. They then ran back into the forest, leaving behind a very confused human.
“There is no need to fret, for there is no more of the timberwolf threat,”
Silver looked to his left and saw a zebra with large pots strapped to her side.
“Zecora,” Silver said without thinking, “thanks for the save!”
The zebra raised an eyebrow, “How does a strange creature who was nearly maimed, know how I am named?”
“The better question is,” Silver said quickly, “why are you here?”
Zecora took a step forward and Silver backed away. The zebra smiled kindly and began to dig at the ground with her hoof. After about a minute, she reached into the small hole, pulled out strange plants with her mouth, and placed them into one of the pots,
“Harvesting,” she said, “but you still have not answered how you know me, and what are you doing so close to Everfree?”
“Well,” Silver said slowly, “I know your name because I guessed. I know it sounds crazy, but I’m ridiculously good at guessing peo-PONY’S-names. As for why I’m here, it’s because I ran away from the town over yonder. I think it’s called Ponyville-”
Zecora’s eyes widened with concern, “What happened to the citizens of Ponyville? Are they endangered or have they fallen ill?”
“No, they’re okay. As for why I left, well,” the human gestured to himself, “because of this. Furthermore, how are you taking seeing a new creature so well? Aren’t you afraid or feel threatened?”
“Are you a threat, creature I have just met?”
“No-”
“Then why should I be afraid, of somepony who I need not evade?”
“Because I’m different?” Silver said, knowing how stupid it sounded.
The zebra smiled knowingly, “The Ponyville folk have quite an imagination, but do not let that create opposition. Not too long in the past, the fear the ponies had for me was large and vast. I decided not to get involved, but that did not diminish their resolve. In the end, when they got to know me, their fear became nothing more than a distant memory.”
“Just like that?” Silver said, uncertain, “All of that aggression toward you was gone, and you all just became instant friends?”
Zecora nodded sagely.
The human barked a laughter, “Wow, when my kind tries to do that, it takes centuries, and even then it’s not enough.” He sighed, “I feel like an idiot. I was always the person who says that being different doesn’t mean you’re in danger, and now I’m running for my life.”
He looked into the direction of Ponyville, thinking of his next move.
“If you are still uncertain of your next course of action,” Zecora said and she gestured to the forest, “you can ponder in my cabin.”
Silver looked at the dark, monster filled forest, and then to the clear field to Ponyville.
“Well Zecora,” Silver said as he gave the zebra a hand/hoof shake and a hug, “if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go find Twilight and her friends. I’ll just be myself, although, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” And he walked away, leaving behind an amused Zecora
“I’m sorry that I’ve asked you to come here so late.”
“No harm, darling.” Rarity said, “But I must say, I would have been more prepared in the morning.”
“I can vouch for that.” Rainbow Dash said, smirking slightly at the mud mask that covered the fashionista’s face.
“Anyways,” Twilight said, “I called you here because we have a bit of a situation. About half an hour ago, a strange creature appeared at my library and then immediately ran away when it realized it was discovered. At this moment, we know almost nothing about the creature except that it’s intelligent, has white hair, and wears clothes. No Rarity, I don’t know the type of clothes it was wearing, and no Pinkie, you can’t plan a ‘Welcome, creature!’ party right now.”
Rarity huffed and Pinkie looked bummed.
“Then what are we waitin’ for?” Applejack said as she readied her lasso, “Let’s go and catch us this critter.”
“But please, don’t hurt Chimpy.” Fluttershy insisted.
“Who the hell is Chimpy? I thought you ponies were looking for me.”
All six friends jumped in shock and turned around to see a tall, strange creature.
Silver had no idea how he managed to find the ponies so quickly. He merely chalked it up to more cartoon logic. However, he would have hoped for more time to think about what he was going to say.
There was complete silence between the two species. Silver took it as a good sign that none of the ponies ran away in fright or attacked him. However, the silence soon became unbearable, so Silver decided to say,
“So, a horse walks into a bar…”
Author's Note
Yay, they all meet!
Whenever there's trouble, there's always a Silver Lining
“Come on, Silver.” Angel said as he sat in front of a T.V, “The season 2 finale is coming up in 10 minutes! You already ignored all of the other season 2 episodes; just watch this one!”
“Sorry, but I got to go and get some school supplies.” Silver said. He had one hand on the door.
“On a Saturday morning?” the brony said suspiciously, “You can get them in half an hour.”
“Sorry, bro, but I promised myself I would stop procrastinating.”
“Why don’t you like the show?” Angel asked sincerely, “Is it because it was made for little girls?”
“You know that I only judge based on quality, not background. My Little Pony is a good show, but it just doesn’t click with me.” He turned and smiled apologetically, “Sorry, friend.”
“Whatever.” Angel said grumpily, “You know, someday, you’ll regret that you didn’t watch the whole show.”
“When that day comes, you can say ‘I told you so’, okay?” the white-haired boy said as he opened the door and left.
After the awkward introduction, and terrible joke, Silver was herded by the six ponies to the library. They made the walk bearable by introducing themselves to the human. Silver already knew most of the information they gave him(having already watched season 1), but there were some things that were new to Silver, like the fact that Twilight Sparkle was now a princess and something called an alicorn. Silver decided it was best to play ignorant, so he didn’t bring up anything about the princesses or the Elements of Harmony.
Silver looked all around the library trying to find something to entertain him. The six friends were in the kitchen, no doubt talking about the human. He casually glanced at the kitchen door; it was ajar and he saw six pairs of eyes staring at him through the small opening.
Silver grinned, “If you keep on peeping like that, I’m gonna have to start charging you.”
The door immediately closed and the human could hear hurried whispers on the other side. As the whispering intensified, it suddenly stopped and the door opened again. This time, Twilight Sparkle stepped through and she walked toward Silver. Behind her was a small, purple dragon that Silver knew, but he didn’t let on.
“Who’s the little guy?” Silver asked.
Before Twilight could answer, the dragon said, “My name is Spike, and I’m a dragon.”
“Neat.” Silver said.
“So, yeah!” Spike said, sounding slightly deflated. Silver suspected Spike was hoping for a much different reaction. The dragon continued, “I’m a dragon, so you better not think of doing any funny business around here, or else you’ll have to answer to me.”
“Okay, tough guy, we get it.” Twilight said fondly, “Why don’t you go and make us some tea.”
Spike looked as though he was ready to protest, but stopped after one look from the princess. He merely nodded and tried to look threatening as he walked away, which failed after he stumbled over his own tail.
“Don’t mind him.” Twilight said after Spike was back in the kitchen, “He can get a bit over-protective, but he really is a nice baby dragon.”
“No problem; this isn’t the first time an over-protective figure threatened me.”
“Okay then.” Twilight said, not really sure how to respond, “Do you mind if I can ask you a few questions?”
“Sure.” Silver said nonchalantly.
…
“Really?” Twilight said, confused, “I thought you would be more secretive or talk your way out of questioning.”
“I don’t think I will get anything from keeping secrets from you ponies. So, might as well spill my guts.”
“So you aren’t scared anymore?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m still on the borderline of having a mental breakdown, but I might as well try to stay calm.”
“Great.” Twilight said as a look of relief appeared on her face, “I thought you would act much more eccentric.”
“The night is still young.” Silver said as he sat on the floor to be at eye level with the princess. Twilight chuckled, slightly nervously, as she too sat down. Her horn glowed and a scroll and quill appeared,
“Okay then, first question; what is your name?”
Silver raised an eyebrow, “Really?”
“We have to do this by the book.”
“What book?!”
Twilight sighed as she summoned a book out of thin air. The cover read: ‘Interrogation 101’.
“Why did you get the book with the menacing title?”
“Because it had a lot more appropriate questions for questioning someone unknown. All the other books just had interview questions for jobs.”
“How many books about questioning are there?”
“We’re getting off topic.” Twilight said exasperatedly, “Please, let’s just do this by the book! First off: what is your name?”
“Silver Lining.”
“Gender?”
“Contrary to popular belief, I am male.”
“Age?”
“Old enough to vote.”
“Vote for what?”
“The president of the United States.”
“Who is?”
“One of the leaders of the United States”
“What is the United States?”
“A piece of land located on Earth.”
“Is Earth your place of origin?”
“Yes.”
“Where is Earth located?”
“Parallel to Equestria.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, “What does that mean?”
“I have no idea. It just sounds right. All I know is that I doubt you will find Earth or my kind in any book. We are rather secretive.”
Twilight scrutinized Silver’s answer for a second longer before continuing, “What race are you?”
“Human.”
“How would you describe your race’s culture?”
“Overly complex. Human is the general term for all of my kind on Earth, but there are a lot of different types of humans with different cultures. It’s like you ponies and your different tribes.”
“How did you get to Equestria?”
“Magical coin.”
Twilight instantly stopped writing and her ears perked up, “Magical coin?” she said.
Silver nodded and showed her the angel coin around his neck, “This little trinket did some weird magic, and now I’m here. I barely know how it works, so I doubt I'll be able to answer your questions about it.”
“Do you mind if I can examine it?” Twilight said. Silver couldn’t help but smile as Twilight’s face lit up at the prospect of studying foreign magic.
“Knock yourself out.” Silver took of his necklace and handed it to the alicorn, who began to rifle through her collection of books. Silver was amused by how Twilight acted like a kid in a candy store as she observed the coin and read her books. He then turned his attention to the kitchen door, which again had curious eyes observing him.
Sighing, Silver walked toward the kitchen. Once the ponies saw he was coming, they shut the door. Silver opened the door, and saw the five ponies sitting around a table, building a house of cards.
“Hello, Silver.” Rarity said the instant the human opened the door, “What brings you here?”
“Magic coin.” Silver said. He looked at all of their smiling faces, “I was just wondering if y’all were spying on me.”
“Why would was want to spy on you?” Rainbow said as she added a card to the card house, which was more like a palace.
“We would never invade your privacy.” Fluttershy reassured.
“We would only do that if we wanted to surprise you.” Pinkie said with a smile, earning her stares from the ponies that screamed ‘Stop talking right now!’
Silver saw that Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie all had straight faces, so he turned to Applejack, who was the only one not looking at him.
“So no one was spying on me?” Silver said, staring intently at Applejack. The farm pony was now sweating bullets and shifting nervously. She opened her mouth, but Dash quickly blocked Silver’s vision,
“Listen here,” the rainbow haired-pegasus said, “no one was spying on you. You’re not that interesting.”
Silver held back a smile; these ponies were trying so hard to be courteous to him. Silver bowed his head, “I’m sorry that I accused you of something you didn’t do.”
The human glanced at the ponies, all of whom shared a momentary look of guilt. Silver thought it best not to pursue the subject, so he went back to Twilight.
“Ready?” Spike said as he passed back the ponies their notes on the human.
“I still say spying on Silver doesn’t feel right.” Applejack said as she took her position in front of the door crack.
“Come on, AJ.” Dash said, “You know the old saying; you learn a lot more about ponies when they think nopony is looking.”
“I don’t think that applies to this since he is with Twilight.” Rarity noted.
“Hush!” Pinkie whispered, “They’re talking!”
“Did you find anything?”
“No.” Twilight said, sounding disappointed, “I have tried every book about magical artifacts, but not one of them even hints to a magical coin.” She turned to Silver, “Can you tell me anything at all about this coin?”
“All I know is that it can do whatever the owner asks for. It’s kind of like a genie. I just say ‘I wish’ and I then ask for something.”
“Can you show me?”
“Sorry, Twilight, but I can’t. It uses energy every time a say a command, and transporting me to Equestria used up nearly all of its energy.”
“Why did you decide to come to Equestria?”
“I didn’t choose it. My friend made the chose for me.”
“Oh, so I’m guessing that you will be going back to Earth soon? I mean, it can’t be that far away.”
Silver sighed sadly, “I can’t go back to Earth for another six months.”
The alicorn’s eyes widened, “What?! Why not?”
This was the question Silver was hoping to avoid. If he said that he was from a different universe, or different dimension, that would open up a can of worms. He also couldn’t say that the angel coin was his only ticket back to Earth, or else that would bring up some unneeded questions. Instead, Silver said,
“My kind has a strange tradition. Once one of us reaches a certain age, which I just reached, we are task to go out into the world for half a year. If we return before the time is up, than we are banished from ever returning home.”
“That’s terrible!” Twilight said, “What do you have to do for the months you are gone?”
“It's up to the human to decide what to do, but most people just record their findings about the outside world. And all we are given are the clothes on our back and the coin, which is called the angel coin.”
Silence followed Silver’s lie. Twilight seemed to have bought it since she patted the human’s shoulder sympathetically, “If you want, you can stay here in Ponyville. This library has a lot of space, so I’m sure I can let you stay here.” Her eyes suddenly lit up, “I just got the greatest idea!”
“I doubt it, but go on.”
“You said that many of your kind usually record their experience, right? Well, you can do that in Ponyville since things are always happening here. I can be your mentor and you can be my pupil!”
“Wait…what?!”
“This is so exciting!” Twilight giggled, ignoring the dumbfounded human, “I can be to you what Princess Celestia was to me. Don’t worry, I promise to be the best mentor any human can ask for. By the end of the six months, you can go back home with your many tales of Equestria. This can even build better relations between Earth and Equestria.” Twilight then summoned a journal with her magic and handed it to Silver, “You hold onto that; it will be where you write your findings. Now, wait here while I go and get us some food. I’m going to start by teaching you everything about Equestrian history.”
Twilight practically skipped to the kitchen, no doubt to tell her friends the news. Silver however, just stayed in his spot, his mouth hanging slightly opened as he stared at the journal in his hands,
“What the hell just happened?”
Whenever there's trouble, there's always a Silver Lining
Chp 5: Manehattan=What?! part 1
Silver Lining was close to a panic attack. His worst fears have finally come true; he was out in the open, in broad daylight, surrounded by ponies. He tried to control his breathing and was barely listening to what Twilight was saying,
“Down there, you can see the train tracks; it’s the path the trains take. Train tracks are placed all over Equestria. You should probably note that trains are the most frequently used mode of transport for ponies.”
“Okay.” Silver said dismissively.
“And we are currently standing on what is called a platform on a train station. These are placed across Equestria too and trains stop at these platforms so ponies can board the trains.”
“Understood.” The human said shakingly.
“You know, you should really take notes on this; it will help you remember the information.”
“I would, except that I’m totally freaking out right now !” Silver whispered as so nopony but Twilight could hear.
“Why? The charm is working.”
“How would you know? The charm doesn’t even affect you.” Silver said. The human looked down at his necklace. The angel coin was still there, but there was a something new; a blue, crescent moon.
Two days have passed since Silver arrived at Ponyville and became Twilight’s pupil. The purple alicorn was so excited that she wrote a letter to her former mentor, Princess Celestia, who was impressed by Twilight for taking on a student. Twilight told Celestia that Silver was not a pony and from a foreign land. The princess of the sun was not troubled by this; she said it would be a great experience for Twilight to teach somepony completely new to Equestria.
At first, Twilight tried to teach Silver as though she was teaching herself. Unknown to her, Silver was not as smart as the pony was. After many trial and errors, they found a learning curve that suited them both. Then came their big argument of introducing the rest of Ponyville to the human. So far, only Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Spike, Princess Celestia, her sister Princess Luna, and Zecora new the existence of the human. In the end, Twilight succumbed to Silver’s pleading and didn’t force him to reveal his true self to the townsfolk. Since Twilight didn’t want her student to spend all day indoors, she sent a note to the princesses for help. The help came in a form of a crescent moon pendant. The pendant, courtesy of Luna, who was apparently a master illusionist, continuously casts a magical illusion around Silver that changed his appearance into a regular pony. The only ones that can see his true form are himself, and those that have already seen him as a human.
“What happens if I lose this thing? What happens if it needs to recharge when I’m in a public place? What happens if-”
Twilight stifled a giggle, which did not go unnoticed by the human,
“Is my freaking out really that amusing to you?” Silver said, slightly hurt.
“It’s not that.” Twilight said, “It’s just that you remind me a lot of, well, me. I also get really nervous, so why don’t we try some breathing exercises. First, bring your arm to your chest and inhale, then extend your arm out as you exhale. Try it.”
Silver sighed and did the breathing exercise.
“Again.” Twilight said.
He repeated it.
“Again.”
After the third time, Silver felt a lot calmer. He chuckled in relief as he was now able to think clearly again.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Twilight said with a hint of smugness.
“Surprisingly, yes.” Silver admitted. He then bowed his head, “Thank you, Twilight-sama.”
The mentor raised an eyebrow, “What’s ‘sama’?”
“It’s a saying in one of the human’s culture. It’s used after someone’s name as a sign of great respect.”
“Oh, well, thank you.” Twilight said. She was slightly blushing from the praise she received.
“Twilight! Silver!” somepony called. The pair turned around and saw the rest of their friends walking towards them.
“What are y’all doing here?” Silver asked curiously.
Rarity, who was leading the group, raised an eyebrow, “What are you talking about, Silver?” she turned to Twilight, “Have you not told him yet?”
“Told me what?” the human asked, now very confused.
Twilight turned to Silver, “Rarity is participating in fashion week at Manehattan, so we’re going to go and support.”
The word Manehattan created images of a bustling and crowded city inside Silver’s mind. He cleared his throat and turned to Rarity, “Sorry, but I won’t be able to go to Manehattan because I’m a hopeless coward, so I’ll be rooting for you in spirit. I really do hope you win and I wish you the best of luck.”
He turned to leave, but Twilight stepped in front of him, “Oh, no you don’t, mister. As Rarity’s friend, you’re going to root for her in person, and as my student, you’re going to Manehattan. If you’re going to learn about Equestria, then you need to get out and explore, and what better way to learn about Equestrian society than by going to an actual city filled with ponies?”
“Are you trying to persuade me to go to a packed city after I had a panic attack from just going outside of the library?” Silver said, shivering at the thought of such a huge change of scenery.
“Come now, darling.” Rarity said, patting Silver on his elbow (she was too short to reach his shoulder), “Manehattan is such a wondrous place that it would be a crime for you to not see it.”
“I have to agree with Rarity on this one.” Applejack said, “Even though I was in Manehattan for only a quick spell, it still left its mark on me.”
“So let’s see that nervous frown turn upside down!” Pinkie Pie said enthusiastically as she literally tried to rearrange Silver’s mouth into a smile.
“We’ll all be there to support you.” Fluttershy assured.
“And besides,” Rainbow Dash added, “I’ll be there to smack you straight before you blow your top.”
Silver couldn’t help but chuckle, “Do you mind if I ask you something? Why are y’all being so nice to me?”
“Because we’re friends.” Twilight said simply.
This made Silver chuckle even more; the ponies have known him for less than a week and they already consider him a friend. He felt so stupid that he was at actually terrified of these ponies.
“Alright, you’ve convince me. Let’s go and show Manehattan what we got!”
Everypony cheered at this proclamation. Then, they heard things falling and a painful groan. The ponies and human turned to see Spike being crushed by luggage.
“Seriously?! How is nopony helping Spike?!” Silver said, flabbergasted, as they all made sure the baby dragon was alright.
‘That’s the city for you’ Silver thought as an elderly mare called him a useless oaf for not watching his step. As he wondered what other surprises he was in-stored for, he suddenly heard someone singing
Oh Manehattan, what you do to me~
Silver then heard music. He turned to see where the band was, but there was none. He then turned to his friends to see if they knew where the music was coming from, only to see that it was Rarity who was singing:
And there is always, opportunity, to do the friendly thing~
Silver smiled in amazement as he looked at all of the surrounding ponies; how can nopony be at awe of this amazing and sudden singing? Silver watched as ponies just kept walking past Rarity as though a pony bursting into song was a common thing in this world.
He turned his attention back to Rarity, only to find they were all in a different place. What was once a crowded sidewalk was now empty and they were all standing in front of what appeared to be a hotel.
“Um, Twilight, where are we?” Silver asked the princess as Rarity talked to a bellhop. The music had also died down and turned to background music.
“We’re at the Mane Fair Hotel.” Twilight said.
“How did we get here so fast?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”
“I mean we just got off of the train station, and now we’re suddenly at this hotel, a hotel that that was nowhere near where we were.”
Twilight looked at her student concernedly, “Are you alright? Did you bump your head while we were walking.”
Silver was about to protest that he was perfectly fine and it was the world that was acting weird, but he decided against it, “You know what, you’re right. I’m just overreacting. I probably just spaced out because of this new environment.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine.” Silver assured, “Come on, let’s go and enjoy ourselves. And do you mind telling me the history of Manehattan?”
Twilight smiled, “Gladly!”
As Twilight began to talk, the music started up again. Silver immediately turned the opposite direction and tried to remember every little detail; he wanted to know whether the songs in this world made him lose chunks of memory, or if it simply teleported the singer and anyone nearby. If Twilight’s lecture sounded as though it had missing parts, then it was memory lost. If the scenery changed suddenly, then it was teleportation. As he scanned his surroundings, he could no longer hear music or the background music. He turned back to where the six mares and baby dragon were standing, but they were nowhere in sight.
A horrible feeling began to spread inside Silver as he slowly realized what happened.
“Songs teleport; good to know.” He muttered weakly.
Author's Note
First episode-bases chapter!
Whenever there's trouble, there's always a Silver Lining
Chp 7: Manehattan=What?! part 3
Silver waited outside of the fashion plaza until the door opened and Rarity came out. He opened his mouth, but the unicorn raised a hoof for silence,
“I have some good news.” She said sternly, “Suri said that she will not press charges for your behavior. After the security guards left, she explained to me that from your perspective, it looked like she tossed the coffee at Coco-”
“But she did throw the coffee!” Silver cried exasperatedly.
Rarity sighed, “Even if that accusation was true, there was no need to act the way you did. While your intentions were gallant, your course of action was brutish. I don’t know how it’s like in your land, but in Equestria, we do things in a civilized way.”
Silver sighed, “Okay, I’m sorry for the way I acted.”
“I don’t need an apology; Suri does. The next time you see her, you will apologize, right?”
Silver nodded. Rarity smiled and she led the way back to the hotel. Of course, Silver had no intention of apologizing to Suri. His only concern for Suri was how he could prove he was right.
“Can I ask you something?” Rarity asked the human after a minute of walking.
“Sure.”
“Why did you pretend not to know me when the security guards came?”
“Oh, that. Well, I thought that you might have gotten disqualified because of my ‘brutish’ behavior, so I pretended to be a total stranger.”
“You know, you don’t have to do that; Twilight must have explained that we’re all friends. As the old saying goes, ‘All for one and one for all.’”
“True, but I’d rather not be the one that gets everypony in trouble. Speaking of Twilight, do you mind not telling her about this?”
“Oh, darling,” Rarity turned to Silver and smiled, “you know I can’t do that.”The next day
“You can leave my stuff on my bed, Silver.” Dash said.
“Okay.” Silver grunted as he painstakingly walked to the pegasus’s bed.
“On second thought.” Dash said as soon as the human was at the foot of her bed, “I think my bags would be a better by the door.”
Silver stared hatefully at the pegasus; he was now sweating bullets, “Fine!”
“Wait a second.” Dash said, smiling wickedly, “I think I want them by the window.”
“How about I shove these bags up your-”
“Silver…” Twilight said warningly.
The human sighed and marched to the window. After Rarity told everypony about Silver’s brush with the law, Twilight scolded him for hours about control and thinking calmly. As punishment, he wasn’t allowed to eat dinner and he was forced to carry all of the girl’s bags as they enjoyed a day at Manehattan. It would have been fine if it wasn’t for the fact that Dash spent a small fortune buying useless and heavy things so Silver could carry them.
The human reached the window and glared at Rainbow, daring her to give him another order.
Dash saw the glare and giggled, “Now Silver, remember; control. You can go ahead and leave the bags there.”
“Thank you.” Silver gasped as he dropped the bags and fell to the floor; he was completely drained.
It was at that moment that the door to the room opened and Rarity entered.
Silver was too tired to pay any attention to the mares’ conversation, at least until he heard Rarity crying.
Slowly, Silver got up and managed to get the gist of the situation; Suri used Rarity’s fabric as her own, completely stealing the unicorns design.
“Excuse me.” Silver said as he walked out of the room. As he walked down the hallway to the elevator, Twilight called from the room, “Where are you going?”
“I have to pay somepony a visit. You take care of Rarity, and I’ll go have a talk with Suri.”
Before Twilight could say anything, Silver ran into the elevator and was gone.
“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Asylum.” Suri said, holding a cup of coffee, “I suppose you came to apologize. Don’t worry, I’ll gladly accept it.”
She put the coffee to her lips, but Silver smacked it away.
“Well, that was uncalled for.” Suri said coolly.
“You just made a terrible mistake, Suri.” Silver said quietly, “You can call me all the names under the sun, but nopony makes my friend cry.”
Suri yawned loudly, “I’m sorry, but were you trying to intimidating me?”
“No, I was just stating a fact.”
“Look, I’m not scared of some has-been’s assistant.”
“Then you should be afraid of a fashion prodigy’s psychologically unbalanced friend.” Silver then looked at Coco with a disappointed look, “Are you seriously going along with this?”
Coco looked down at her hooves despondently and didn’t answer.
“Of course she is.” Suri said delightfully, “As a matter of fact, it was Coco here who made my new dresses from my new material.”
“Fine.” Silver said, still staring at the assistant, “Just know this, Coco; Rarity is the most generous pony I know, and she doesn’t deserve this.”
With that, Silver took off to the other direction. As he left, he could hear Suri laughing, which only made him angrier. One of the few things he hated were people that made his friends upset, and took joy in it. Suri fit the bill perfectly.
Instead of going back to the hotel, Silver walked around Manehattan looking for a certain store. He eventually found what he was looking for; a shop with a flower sign. He entered the store and the cashier; an earth pony mare, introduced herself,
“Hello there!” She said, “I’m Poppy Seed and welcome to Poppy’s Gardening Superstore. We sell everything from Sunflower seeds to heavy-duty gardening equipment. How can I help you today?”
“I’m looking for some fertilizer.”
“Then you come to the right place. Here, we have every single fertilizer known to pony kind, and some known to griffons. Anything in particular you’re looking for?”
“Actually, I’m looking for the foulest smelling fertilizer you got. You see, some foals back home are always running around my garden, so I need a fertilizer that could help and protect my garden.”
“I’ve got just the thing.” Poppy said cheerfully. She trotted out of the counter and deeper into the store. After a while, she came back with a large and dusty bag.
“This little beauty is Hydra fertilizer,” She gave the bag a little pat and a dust cloud formed, “This will keep your plants healthy, but most ponies don’t buy it since the smell is just too repulsive. If you got a strong nose, then this is for you.”
“You got yourself a deal.” Silver said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pouch. Twilight had given Silver a little spending money when going around Manehattan, but Silver didn’t buy anything since he already had enough to carry.
“I should probably warn you that if you let the fertilizer touch your skin for too long, it will cause some nasty red blotches.” Poppy said. She then smiled again, “Anything else?”
“Yes, actually. Do you know where the nearest pet store is?”The Next Day: Fashion Runway Day
The fashion plaza was packed with ponies. There were mutters and flashes of light as everypony waited in anticipation for the show to start. The backstage was no different as contestants were making sure their dresses were top notch. As everypony was busy with their designs, nopony noticed the weirdly placed bush behind the curtains.
The bush gave a small shake and Silver poked his head out.
“Man!” Silver said quietly as he fanned himself, “It is hot in there.” He looked up and saw that his plan was still in full effect.
After Silver got the materials for his revenge plan, he snuck into the plaza at night. It was pretty easy, which surprised the human. Of course, he didn’t complain since it took several hours for him to figure out how to actually make his plan a reality. Thankfully, he placed the finishing touches before the plaza officially opened and ponies started to pour in, eager for some fashion fun.
Silver didn’t return to the motel and has been stuck in the plaza all day, so he looked like a complete mess. The human, however, didn’t care since he was moments away from revenge. He looked up from his hiding spot to see a pulley system working its way to the runway. At the end was a bucket hanging over the runway, ready to drop at a pull of the rope Silver was holding. Inside the bucket was the Hydra fertilizer, which was soaked in skunk spray to give it a water texture. To disguise the scent, Silver wrapped the bucket with countless air fresheners (the human knew that would have never disguised the scent in the real world, so he just thanked cartoon logic).
Minutes passed by as contestant after contestant showed of their designs. Finally, it was Suri’s turn. Unsurprisingly, the crowd loved Rarity’s fabric. As Suri was being praised, Silver tightened his grip on the rope,
“Silver, is that you?”
The human turned around and saw Rarity standing next to him.
“Rarity?” Silver said, confused, “what are you doing here?”
The unicorn raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean? I’m competing.”
“You managed to recreate your entire design in one night? Very impressive.”
“Well, I did have some help.”
“You and everypony else spent all night making the dresses? That was pretty nice of them.”
“Well, they did kind of owe me for all of the things I’ve done for them.”
“Yeah, they did owe-wait…what?!” Silver said after realizing what Rarity said. It was at that moment of shock that Suri left the runway and returned backstage. Silver, however, didn’t care about that at the moment, “What do you mean they owed you?”
“Well, I always do so many nice things for them, and I never ask for anything back…”
“Wow, just, wow. Aren’t you supposed to be the Element of Generosity?”
“Does that mean I’m not allowed to get any assistance when I ask for it?” Rarity said hotly.
“Fair point. Then tell me, how did you ask for it?”
“Well, first my friends offered, so we started to work on the dresses. But after a couple of hours of work, they started complaining about food and wanting to go see Hinny of the Hills. Can you believe that? How selfish!”
“Okay, Rarity, please tell me your hearing yourself. First off, seriously? You didn’t give them food?”
“We had some room service.”
“Also, are you telling me that you didn’t let them go see Hinny of the Hills?”
“If it wasn’t for me, they wouldn’t even have tickets to the show.”
“And does that mean they are indebted to you for life? Did you at least ask them nicely to skip the show to help you?”
Rarity blinked, “Well, no. No I didn’t.”
Silver sighed, “Rarity, you have every right to be pissed, but whenever someone or somepony is angry, we never take it out on our friends. Did you thank them after they helped you?”
Rarity dropped her head in shame and shook her head.
“I am such a horrible pony.” She muttered as she realized what she had done.
Silver heard this, “Well, you did act like one, but I highly doubt that you are one.”
It was then that huge cheers erupted from the audience. The pony and human looked and they saw the crowd was cheering for Rarity’s new dresses. Silver couldn’t help but chuckle at the models wearing furniture, but the audience seemed to love it.
The director of the fashion show, Prim Hemline, walked up to the duo, “Rarity, they all adore you! Aren't you going to tell them about your fabulous pieces?”
Rarity, however, didn’t look the crowd that was infatuated by her designs. All she did was look at a section of the audience that was vacant. Silver knew that that was where the rest of the girls were supposed to be.
Rarity’s face then turned from sadness to determination, “I have to go.” And without another word, she shot out of the runway and out onto the streets.
“Where is she going?” Prim cried, shocked by Rarity’s behavior.
“She’s off to do the right thing.” Silver said proudly. Prim had no idea what that meant, so she simply walked away.
“That was really nice of you for helping your friend.”
Silver turned and saw that it was Coco Pommel that spoke.
“I didn’t do anything.” Silver said coldly, “I just helped her see what she already knew.”
Coco heard the bite in his voice and bowed her head, “I’m sorry.”
Silver sighed, “It’s not your fault that you don’t have a backbone, and it isn’t me you should be apologizing to.”
Coco was now unnerved; she seemed to have thought the conversation would have gone along a lot better than it was going. Silver, however, wasn’t acting as she had hoped, but the human didn’t really care. To him, Coco was still guilty for helping Suri steal Rarity’s fabric.
“Is there anything I could do to help?” Coco said hopefully.
Silver was about to reply viciously when an idea popped into his head, “Actually, yes, you can help. Can you tell Suri that Prim said the audience wants an encore of her design?”
Coco seemed confused by the request, but she nodded. After about a minute, Suri was strutting onto the runway and Coco was by Silver’s side.
“I have to ask you something.” Silver said as Suri displayed her dresses again.
“What is it?”
“You seem kind of nice, so why are you working for somepony like Suri?”
Coco sighed, “I’ve always wanted to be a fashion designer, but nopony would take me as their student. Then Suri came along and offered me a role as an apprentice, which basically meant as an assistant. Still, she has connections…”
“So you put up with her crap for your dreams?” Silver said slowly, “I have to respect; not many ponies would risk a lot for their dreams. Now, can you tell me how you honestly feel about Suri?”
“…She is a…um…”
“We’ll work on that later.” Silver said. He then smiled as he passed the rope to Coco, “Pull on this whenever you’re ready, because you need this more than I do.”
“What will it do?” Coco said as she took the rope.
“It’ll give Suri something to think about. Now, excuse me while I go look for a friend.”
Silver ran onto the runway, surprising everypony. He jumped into the audience and sprinted to the door to the entrance. As he had one hand on the handle, he heard his contraption starting up. Then, the room was filled with Suri’s shrill screaming and a horrible stench.
Grinning victoriously, Silver walked out of the runway and out of the Fashion Plaza.
“You sure you’re okay?” Silver asked as they stepped inside the plaza.
Rarity sighed, “I’m fine; I just hope my friends will forgive me.”
“I’m sure they will.” Silver said optimistically, but he knew that there was a chance that the ponies would hold a grudge.
As Rarity asked the receptionist for the whereabouts of Prim, a door on the other side of the room opened. She and Silver turned and saw Suri and Coco stepping out. The human grinned at the sight of Suri; although it seemed she removed the fertilizer and the smell, the designer had angry red blotches all over her face. Coco seemed to be trying to avoid looking at Suri because every time she saw Suri’s face, she cracked a smile. Right behind the two, to Silver’s and Rarity’s surprise, was Twilight and the gang stepping out of the door.
Silver quickly took a couple steps back and tried to blend into the background. He knew that he had to let the girls resolve their conflict themselves, but he was still within range to stop any physical or verbal confrontation.
However, to Silver’s pleasant surprise, the ponies didn’t fight at all. It seemed that the gang overslept, so they missed the show, and that Rarity lost. To the human’s even greater surprise, Rarity wasn’t hurt by this; she was just glad her friends were still her friends.
‘I guess you were right, Angel.’ Silver thought as he watched the friends hug, ‘These ponies really are something special.’
Silver opened the door for the ponies and baby dragon as they all stepped outside and talked about Rarity’s surprise; an exclusive Hinny of the Hills showing.
“Don’t worry, Silver.” Rarity said, “This time you will be able to see the opera.”
“I can’t wait.” Silver said, although he wasn’t all too thrilled about operas. He turned around for one last look at the fashion plaza and saw Suri and Coco standing outside. Suri smirked victoriously before stepping back inside the plaza and Coco waved goodbye before following her employer.
“Could you girls excuse me?” Silver said, walking back to the plaza, “I have to take care of something.”
“It’s okay.” Twilight said, “We’ll wait.”
“That’s okay. I’m gonna take a while, so y’all just enjoy yourselves. I’ll meet you at the opera house.”
“Do you even know where it is?”
“I’ve got maps, right? I’ll be fine, just have fun!”
The ponies waved goodbye as they made their way to the opera. Silver entered the plaza and saw Suri standing in the middle with Coco, who was holding Suri’s coffee.
Suri saw who entered, “Well, if it isn’t the practical joker. Are you here to try and scare me into giving my money to the needy? Or are you here to bask in the glory of my victory?”
Silver sighed, “Why are you such a bitch? I sincerely want to know why you have no sympathy for anypony else. Is it because you weren’t loved enough as a kid or something? Give me a reason that at least explains why you are who you are?”
Suri was expressionless for a second before smiling, “Wow, you must really be pathetic if that’s the best insult you have. You and Rarity are just so sad that it’s actually funny.”
It was at that moment that Coco stepped in front of Suri and stared her employer straight in the face, “Shut up.”
This time, Suri actually looked shocked, “Excuse me?”
“I said shut up.” Coco said loudly. This new confidence completely caught Silver and Suri off guard. Coco continued, “Don’t talk about Silver that way. He is a good pony who is good to his friends. And don’t you ever call Rarity sad. I almost believed you when you said it was everypony for themselves, but Rarity is proof that you are full of yourself. Rarity is an amazing designer and a generous friend. She is more deserving of winning the trophy than you…you…heartless cow!” and then Coco took the coffee she was holding and dumped it on Suri’s face.
There was complete silence between the Suri, Coco, and Silver. Then, Silver cupped his hands around his mouth, “OHHHHHHHHHHHH-
-HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” He then burst out laughing as Coco then walked into the room next door and then walked out with her head held high.
Silver followed Coco, but he then turned back to Suri, who had not moved in inch. Silver opened his mouth, “I have absolutely no other thing to say other than DAMN!” and with that, he left.
“That was incredible!” Silver told Coco as they walked down the streets of Manehattan, “Would you be at all freaked out if I said that I really love you right now?”
“The old me would, but not the new me.” Coco said . She was still brimming with confidence from her courageous action, which only made Silver giddy.
“So, what are you going to do now?” Silver asked.
At this point, Coco lost some of her flair, “I…don’t really know. My only plan right now is to give Rarity her trophy.”
“Wait, her trophy?” Silver said slowly, “You mean she won?”
“Yes. Suri lied because she hoped she would get the trophy if Rarity didn’t collect it. And I lied too.” She added shamefully.
“Don’t beat yourself up, you made things right.”
“But there were others. Other ponies that Suri took advantage of…and I helped her.”
“Then let’s go and apologize to those ponies.”
Coco looked at Silver, “Really, you think they’ll except my apology?”
“Yes, and if they don’t, then it’s there lost. Plus, Rarity is watching Hinny of the Hills with her friends, so it might be best not to disturb them. Come Coco, let’s go do a redemption montage!”One redemption montage later
Silver and Coco walked into the opera house that was showing Hinny of the Hills. From all of the good things he heard of the show, Silver expected the opera house to be packed, but it was empty. The two walked down to the entrance to the stage, and saw that it was completely deserted except for the clapping Ponyville gang.
“Wow, when Rarity says exclusive, she means exclusive.” Silver said. He turned to Coco, “It looks like the opera just ended, so go in and do your stuff.”
Coco took a deep breath, “Wish me look.”
“You don’t need it.”
Coco smiled as she opened the door and entered the room. Silver looked through the small window on the door and saw Coco talking to Rarity. There were many surprise faces and then happy faces. After Coco handed the trophy to Rarity, Rarity said something that made Coco’s face light up. As the conversation seemed to dwindle down, Coco added one more thing that surprised the ponies. She then pointed to the door, and the gang saw Silver looking at them.
“What’s going on now?” Silver wondered. The human saw Rarity leading Coco to the backstage of the opera house while Twilight and the rest walked out of the theater and were now with Silver. The alicorn walked to her student and gave him a hug,
“I’m so proud of you.” Twilight said after letting go, “Only four days as my student, and you’re already teaching other ponies.”
“Coco told us what happened.” Fluttershy said in response to Silver’s confused look, “She said that you taught her how to do the right thing.”
“But I didn’t do anything.” Silver said, slightly confused from all of the praise, “I just told her the obvious, and it wasn’t until after she saw Rarity treat you girls that she realized the truth.”
“Well aren’t you the modest one.” Applejack said, “You can learn a lot from him, Dash.”
“Yeah, right.” Dash said sarcastically as she stood on Silver’s head, “The only thing I learned from him is how to carry bags.” She then looked down at Silver’s face, “Sorry short stack, but you’re still just a guppy. Only after you do something really awesome, like save Equestria, will I be somewhat impressed.”
Rainbow Dash was then pushed out of the way by Pinkie Pie, who took Dash’s position on the human’s head, “I know you already said no to the ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party, but can I at least make you a small party with just us for your first friendship medal.”
Silver raised an eyebrow, “Friendship medal?”
Pinkie hopped of his head and then pulled out a scrapbook from her pink mane. She opened it and showed the contents to everypony, “I’ve been making medals after each of us did something friendship related. This section is for Twilight and here,” she pointed to a medal with Twilight wearing a crown and reading letters, “is the medal she got after we all became the opposite of who we were and she set is straight.”
Silver looked at the scrapbook and he was glad that he wasn’t the only one surprised by Pinkie’s hobby.
“Um, Pinkie,” the human said, “has anypony every told you that you’re…um…”
“Random?” Dash said helpfully.
“I was going to say insane, but your way sounds better.”
Everypony giggled, even Pinkie.
“Don’t worry, Silver.” The party pony said cheerfully, “You don’t have to worry about me; my parents had me tested.”
Silver didn’t know how to respond, so he just kept his mouth shut. After another minute of talking, Rarity rejoined the group.
“Coco is all set up.” She told the gang, “She’s now hard at work for my designer friend for his next show. Don’t worry,” Rarity told Silver, “he’s nice.”
“I’m not really worried about Coco.” Silver said, “I’m sure she could handle herself now.”
“So, Silver,” Twilight said formally, “how was your first experience out in Equestria?”
Silver thought for a moment about his two days in Manehattan. All the drama was definitely something to take into consideration, as well as the hardships and the ending results of his little adventure. Silver looked at Twilight and the gang and smiled,
“It was fan-pony-tastic!”
Whenever there's trouble, there's always a Silver Lining
Chp 8: Hearts and Hooves Day part 1
It was such a nice day in Ponyville. The birds were singing, the air smelled so sweet, and the entire town was decorated in red for Hearts and Hooves Day. Ponies were standing near the town square, waiting for their dates, while stalls were being set up for the dates that were sure to come by. The Ponyville Library was also decorated for the festivities; the leaves were magically colored to red and pink, and the windows were morphed into heart-shaped ones.
Inside the library, Twilight was sleeping comfortingly in her bed. All of a sudden, her eyes burst opened and she sat up straight,
“What time is it?” she thought aloud. She turned to her bedside clock and was surprised that it was already 9:00 am; she usually got up two hours earlier. She examined her clock and theorized that somepony must have tampered with the alarms. After a second of thinking she knew the culprit, or culprits.
“Spike! Silver!” she called loudly, “Get in here!”
She then heard noises right behind her bedroom door. It seemed that the two boys were about to enter her room before she woke up.
“Now what?” said the voice that Twilight knew was Spike’s.
“What do you mean? We stick to the plan.” Said the voice that was undoubtedly Silver’s.
“But I thought Twilight was supposed to be asleep.”
“Not necessarily. Come on.”
Twilight tensed; whatever prank they were going to play, she was ready. The door opened and Twilight’s horn glowed. Silver stepped inside,
“Happy Hearts and Hooves Day, Twilight-sama!”
Twilight blinked and her horn stopped glowing. She sat on her bed while Silver carried a breakfast tray into her room and placed it on her lap.
“Um, Silver, what is this?” Twilight said, slightly bemused. She stared at the tray and saw it was stacked with pancakes, toast, oatmeal, and orange juice.
“Well, first off,” Silver said as Spike also entered the room, “Why didn’t you tell me it was Hearts and Hooves Day?”
“Well, I was going to teach you about it today.”
The human sighed, “Of course; only you could make a holiday into a lesson.”
“How did you know that today was Hearts and Hooves Day?”
“Spike.” Silver said, gesturing to the baby dragon, “He wanted me to tell him some human romance advice that would get him closer to Rarity.”
“Silver!” Spike cried, “I told you that in bro confidence.”
“I don’t even know what that means.” Silver said, as though it would explain everything, “Anyways, I told him about making Rarity breakfast in bed. Then he explained to me that he was doing it for Hearts and Hooves Day. Fun fact, humans also have a day exactly like this called Valentine’s Day. So, I decided to take part in the festivities. I got up at 5 am and cooked you breakfast.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, “You were cooking breakfast for four hours?”
“Actually,” Spike said, strangely smug like, “He was cooking terribly for two hours. Silver woke me up and asked for my help because he can’t cook to save his life.”
“Hey,” Silver said indignantly, “that’s not true. I made the orange juice.”
“And that’s the only thing he made. He snuck into your room and stopped your alarm to get me time to make your breakfast.”
“But since it was my idea, I get full credit.” Silver added.
“Thank you, both of you.” Twilight said, giving the two boys a hug.
“No problem.” Spike said, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to Rarity’s.” and without further ado, Spike skipped merely out of the room and out of the library.
“So,” Silver said, “I think I’ll leave you to your breakfast. If you need me, I’ll be doing some H and H Day shenanigans.”
“But what about the lesson?” Twilight said earnestly.
“Come on, Twilight. Let’s just skip today’s lesson. Besides,” Silver said, giving Twilight a sly smile, “I think you’d rather enjoy yourself with that special somepony.”
Twilight looked confused, “What are you talking about?”
Silver blinked twice, “What do you mean what am I talking about? A pegasus with blue hair? Orange coat? Plays guitar? Ring any bells?”
Twilight just stared at Silver with a very confused look.
“Angel lied to me.” Silver said irritably.
“Who’s Angel?”
“A liar.”
“Um, okay then. Anyways, if you want, go out and enjoy yourself. Besides, today is re-shelving day!” she added excitingly.
“That is so adorkable.” Silver gushed, “I’ll leave you to it, but first…”
Silver looked at Twilight and pulled back the sleeves of his standard black sweater. He then did a lot of weird and spastic arm movements. After a couple of seconds, he stopped moving his arms and he had a bouquet of roses in his hands.
“For you, mentor.” Silver said, handing the flowers to Twilight. Silver silently thanked cartoon logic because he had no idea where the flowers came from. He just winged it.
Twilight took the flowers and then looked at the breakfast tray, “Um, Silver…?”
“Yep?”
“Um, listen,” she said awkwardly, “I understand that there are times where a pupil has high respect for his mentor. And that the respect can turn into something more-”
“Twilight, stop talking.” Silver deadpanned, “Why can’t a guy just do something for his female friend on Hearts and Hooves Day without it being weird?”
Twilight blushed deeply, “I-I didn’t mean anything-”
Silver smiled, “Chill, Twilight it’s all good. Enjoy re-shelving.”
And with that, Silver skipped outside of the library. Twilight chuckled to herself. She reached for the orange juice on her tray and drank it, only to start choking on a seed.
Ponyville was now active with H and H Day fun. There were dates walking about and stands that sold sweets for the dates. A couple of ponies that recognized Silver waved at him and he waved back. The human still didn’t have any real friends besides the gang, but he was now recognizable by the town folk.
“Hiya Silver! How ya doing?”
Silver turned and saw Applejack waving from a stand that sold, well, apples and apple products.
“Hey, Applejack, you working the stalls today?”
“Eeyup.” The farm pony replied, “Nothing says love like a 10 bit freshly baked apple pie.”
“A business opportunist; I respect that.” Silver scanned the stall of the baked goods and saw a pony coming out of the corner of his eye.
The pony shoved Silver aside and faced Applejack, “How much for an apple pie?” he said quickly. Silver glanced at the pony and saw that he was sweating bullets and his eyes kept shifting back and forth.
“An apple pie is 20 bits.” Silver said before Applejack could say anything.
The nervous pony cringed, “That’s a little too steep. Can’t we change the price?”
Silver grinned, “Fine; 24 bits.”
“But that’s more!”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m just having an off day, kind of like you. How about 28 bits, and we won’t tell your little lady you forgot.”
The pony’s pupils shrunk and he quickly threw a pile of bits onto Applejack’s stall before taking a pie and running away.
“Silver, what in tarnation was that?!” Applejack asked irritably, “You just made that pony pay more than double what it actually costs.”
“That, my dear Applejack, is called Economics in my world.” He took the bits and split them, “14 bits for me, and 14 bits for you.”
“Silver, this is wrong.” Applejack said, “I feel like we just scammed him.”
“Wow; an honest business pony. You have just leveled up in respect in my eyes. Also, we did scam the pony.”
“Why?!”
Silver shrugged, “Because it was easy. You saw how nervous he was? That was because he forgot all about some special plans with his date, so he wanted to do something quickly. Honestly, I say he deserves to work extra if he didn’t put enough effort the first time.”
“I don’t know…” Applejack said slowly, “It still doesn’t feel right.”
The human sighed, “Alright, I’m sorry that I made you go on the guilt trip. If you want, I’ll go return the money-”
As he reached for the bits, the farm pony quickly swiped them and placed them in her money chest.
“What’s done is done and we must live with the consequences.” Applejack said stoically. Silver chuckled lightly, “Okay then. I think I’ll just let you get back to your sales.”
Silver turned to leave, but was stopped by an elderly mare who was carrying a basket.
“Would you like of bouquet of roses?” she said, “They’re only 2 bits.”
“Sure.” Silver said, “But I’ll take five.”
Silver paid and then took the goods. He turned back to Applejack and then handed her a bouquet.
“Oh,” Applejack said, surprised, “Well, thank you kindly, Silver.” She took the roses and set them aside. She sighed, “Um, listen, I don’t mean to string you along, but-”
“Seriously?” Silver said, “Can’t a guy give presents to his friends anymore?”
“Well, it is Hearts and Hooves Day…”
“And?”
Applejack chuckled; Silver just didn’t understand. So she just smiled, “It’s nothing. Thanks for the roses.”
“No problem. Laters!” Silver said as he walked away, wondering why girls of all species made gift giving so complicated.
“I am never shopping here again!” a unicorn mare shouted as she stormed out of the dress shop, “You have absolutely no idea what you’re doing!”
As she stomped away, a very angry Rarity shouted from the door, “Maybe I would have known what I was doing if you hadn’t pestered me about making you look thin, which I might add would have been near IMPOSSIBLE!”
“Well, aren’t you in a pleasant mood.”
Rarity jumped; she turned around and saw Silver standing by the door.
“Oh, Silver,” she said, slightly flustered, “how long have you been standing there?”
“I was here when the magic whale walked out of your home.”
Rarity blushed a deep crimson, “I’m sorry you had to see me in my…less then professional moments.”
“When you gotta insult somepony, then you gotta insult somepony.” Silver said nonchalantly.
At that moment, Spike exited the boutique with a tea cup,
“Here, Rarity,” the baby dragon said as he handed Rarity the cup, “I made you some lilac tea.”
“Thank you, darling.” Rarity said appreciatively, “If you both don’t mind, I really must get back to work. I always get so many requests for dresses on Hearts and Hooves Day.” She handed Spike the cup before heading back inside.
“What was up with the customer from Hell, or Tartarus?” Silver asked Spike.
“She asked Rarity to make her a dress for some big date tonight, but the she kept telling Rarity that she was doing everything wrong. Of course, Rarity tried to be the bigger pony, but even the best have their snapping points.”
“I wish I was there to see it happen.” Silver said glumly, surprising the dragon. “Anyways, how did Rarity take her breakfast in bed?”
“Um, not well…”
“Why not?”
“Well…I kind of let myself into Rarity’s house and started making her breakfast. But Rarity was already awake, and she thought I was a burglar. Luckily, she didn’t see my face, but she did run me out with a broom.”
Silver burst out laughing after the story, “Wow! You seriously have the worst luck ever!”
Spike was about to retort, but Silver had already stepped inside Rarity’s boutique. Spike followed the human, who was talking to Rarity,
“Here you go, Rarity.” Silver said, taking out the bouquet of roses from seemingly nowhere, “Happy Hearts and Hooves Day.”
Spike looked murderous, betrayed, and heartbroken all at once as Rarity took the roses.
“But let me clarify,” Silver said, “This isn’t some hidden meaning or cleaver rouse to win your affection. This is just me giving you roses as a friend on H and H Day. Okay?”
Rarity giggled, “Of course, Silver, but even then, this is still a kind gesture. Actually, I think I have a way to repay you.”
‘Please don’t kiss him! Please don’t kiss him!’ Spike thought urgently. Rarity’s horn glowed and a pair of pants appeared out of thin air.
“I have been working on these ever since we came back from Manehattan.” Rarity said as the human picked up the pants, “Think of it as a way of thanking you for helping Coco Pommel and I, and for the roses.” She added with a smile, “I promise I’ll make you more since I can only imagine you have been wearing the same clothing since you got here.
“Um, Rarity,” Silver said as he examined the gift, “I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but these pants seem a little small.”
“I did kind of eyeball the design since I didn’t have exact measurements, but why don’t we try them out to see how much room we need.”
“I sure hope Rarity is having a fun Hearts and Hooves Day.” She said as she took a stack of letters from her mailbag. The stack had the usual bills, but it also had many letters with hearts on them. Derpy walked to the door and was about to insert the mail into the slot when she heard strange noises,
“Here, let me help you.” Rarity said.
“Rarity, I can handle this.” Came the voice Derpy recognized as the stallion who hangs out with Twilight; Silver Lining.
“Don’t be silly, darling. I’ll hold it open while you let yourself in.”
There was then a series of pained groans.
“Rarity,” Silver panted, “I can’t fit!”
“Yes you can!”
More pained groans.
“It’s-too-tight!” Silver said in painful intervals.
“Don’t give up now!” Rarity encouraged, “We’re almost there!”
“I-can’t!” Silver huffed, “I can’t breathe! I’m going to EXPLODE!”
“Just a couple more seconds! You can do it, Silver!”
At that moment, Silver screamed, but Derpy could not tell whether it was from pain, or pleasure. Her entire face now red, Derpy flew as fast as she can away from the boutique; her mind now rustled.
Author's Note
Happy Hearts and Hooves Day everyone! I wanted to do the whole chapter in one go, but I didn't have the time. So, here's the first half; I hoped you enjoyed it!
P.S. I was very uncomfortable when writing the last scene. *sigh* The things I do to make people laugh...
Whenever there's trouble, there's always a Silver Lining
Chp 9: Hearts and Hooves Day part 2
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Whenever there's trouble, there's always a Silver Lining
Rainbow Dash soared over the woods on the outskirts of Ponyville. She was currently on break from her job and was looking for a good place to nap. Since all of the clouds were cleared, the next best napping spot would be on a tree, and what better selection would there be than the trees from the woods.
As Dash neared a river, she saw a strange sight. She recognized the weird shape as Silver, but he had his jacket’s hoodie over his head and he seemed to be sneaking toward a tree.
“What the hay?” Dash said, wondering what the human was doing. She swooped down and floated right behind him. Dash tapped his shoulder with a hoof, and the human jumped in fright. He quickly turned around and saw a grinning Dash.
“Well aren’t you twitchy this morning.” Dash said, snickering slightly after scaring Silver, who didn’t find it as funny.
“You mind warning a guy before giving him a heart attack.” Silver whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” Dash said curiously.
Silver pointed above him. Dash looked up and saw a bee’s nest.
Dash blinked, “Really? You’re scared of bees?”
“If bees stung you in the back of your neck when you were a kid, then you would know my fear.” Silver said. He turned back and began to walk toward the bee-infested tree.
“If you’re so scared, then why don’t you just leave?” Dash asked as she followed Silver.
“Because of that.” Silver said as he pointed to the base of the tree. Dash looked and saw a couple of light brown flowers.
“Apparently those are ambrosia flowers.” Silver explained, “Fluttershy asked me if I could go looking for these flowers, and stupid me said okay. She never said that bees were very fond of the flowers.”
Silver slowly sneaked toward the flowers, keeping an eye on the bees above. He bent down, picked the flowers, pocketed them, and slowly backed away.
“Wow, you’re such a scaredy human.” Dash said as she watched Silver quicken his retreat, “You’re literally a million times their size.”
“That doesn’t mean they still can’t sting me. In fact, my size just gives them an easier target.” Silver said stoically. He walked away and Dash followed him,
“Hey, if anything ever scares or annoys you, just do what I do and chuck it.” Dash said.
Silver stopped and stared at Dash, “You said ‘annoy’, right?”
“Yep.”
Silver stared at Dash for a second before picking her and chucking her to the river. Dash was so surprised that she didn’t have time to regain her balance, so she plunged into the river.
Silver was staring at where the pegasus disappeared when he heard somepony call his name. He turned to face up river and he saw a raft carrying Pinkie Pie and the Apple family.
“Hey, Silver!” Pinkie called, “Whatcha doin?”
“Doing some stress-relieving exercise.” Silver said, looking very relaxed, “What are y’all doing.”
“We’re gonna go see if Pinkie here is a real Apple family member.” Applejack said, giving Pinkie a pat on the head.
Silver blinked, “Wow, you ponies are a reality show’s wet dream.”
“Does the dream involve frosting?” Pinkie said excitingly.
“Only in a clopper’s dream.” Silver said. He then waved goodbye as the raft went down the river, sending the ponies on their crazy adventure. After the Apples and Pinkie disappeared, Dash burst out of the river and glared at Silver.
“What was that for?!” Dash shouted.
“How are you not out of breath?” Silver asked, confused, “You were under for a minute or so.”
Dash’s nostrils flared. She flew out of the river and past Silver. She then proceeded to kick him in the back, sending him flying to the river.
“Let’s see how you like it.” Dash said as the human plunged into the river. Silver popped back up and was frantically splashing.
“Crap!” Silver yelled, “I can’t swim! Crap!”
Dash stared at Silver in a condescending way, “Silver, just stand up. It’s like five feet deep and the water is calm.”
Silver splashed for a couple more seconds before finally standing up. He breathed a sigh of relief when his head was above water level.
“Is there anything you aren’t afraid of?” Dash asked when Silver walked out of the river and onto shore.
“I’m not afraid of rocks.” Silver said as he took another sigh of relief.
“Wow, you’re more Fluttershy than Fluttershy. Now, apologize.” Dash said, her glare returning.
“For what?” Silver snapped.
“For throwing me into the river.”
Silver stood up at full height and stared down at Dash, “What about when you left me strung up by my legs and surrounded by vengeful mares? Why don’t you apologize for that?”
Dash stared at Silver as though he grew a second head, “Are you still on that?”
“It happened three days ago!” Silver shouted.
“Geez! I said I was sorry.” Dash exasperated.
“You said that you’re glad I was okay, which is not apologizing!”
“Oh my Celestia.” Dash said annoyingly, “Has Rarity been teaching you how to be a drama queen?”
“You know what?” Silver said, “I’m done. I know that friendship is magic, or something, but it looks like there is no friendship here. So goodbye!” Silver yelled and stormed off.
Dash looked at Silver walking away and rolled her eyes, “Are all humans this easy to upset?” she asked herself.
“How is she anybody’s favorite?” Silver thought aloud as he walked through the woods, still fuming after his meeting with Rainbow, “She’s an arrogant prick that would probably sell out other ponies if she wasn’t given the element of loyalty.”
He looked around, trying to remember the way out. It was weird since he was sure he should have been out of the woods by now. As he pondered over which way to go, it dawned on him,
“God dammit.” Silver sighed, “I’m now a character who has just gotten into a heated argument with another character in a show about friendship.” Silver looked up with a bored expression, “Alright, give me the convoluted plot point. Come on, let’s get this over with. But I guarantee you that I won’t forgive Dash.”
Silver waited, but nothing happened. Scoffing slightly, he turned and walked away, only to slam head first into a tree. He cried in pain as he fell back, massaging his forehead. As his eyes watered with pain, he noticed that a piece of paper fell on his lap. He picked it up and looked at it, only to have the blood drain from his face.
On the paper, which was yellowed by age, were two large, ominous words,
Can’t run
“No!” Silver whispered. He scrambled to his feet and looked all around, “No, no, no!” was all the human could say. His mind was filled with images of a tall man with a blank face and a sharp suit. A man with extending tentacles and an enjoyment of killing.
Silver was now hyperventilating, “Come the buck on! This is a kids’ show! You’re telling me that Slenderman is here!” Silver tried to catch his breath, “Okay, let me think. All I have to do is find the other seven pages and…” he paused, “something will happen.” He finished lamely. He had no idea what would happen. All he did know was that staying still would only bring him a quicker death. He accepted his faith that he was alone with a monster.
That’s when Silver realized he wasn’t alone. There was somepony else in the woods,
“Oh no,” Silver gasped, “That idiot Rainbow Dash is going to get herself killed!”
He turned back to the direction he came from. Even if he was angry at Dash, he wasn’t angry enough to let her die,
“Dash!” he yelled as he looked in all directions, “Dash! Where are you?!”
He ran into a small clearing and found Dash on the other side of it, staring at a tree curiously.
“NO!” Silver yelled, sprinting to the pegasus, “Don’t pick up that page.”
Dash scoffed, not realizing Silver’s frantic tone, “You can’t tell me what to do.”
She stuck out her tongue at him and Silver thought for a moment of just letting the ingrate take the page. He quickly squashed the idea. Picking up his speed, he pushed Dash aside and grabbed the next page, this one showing the slenderman surrounded by ‘no’s’.
“Why are you hitting me so much today?!” Dash snarled.
Silver turned to Dash and opened his mouth, but instead of saying something, he started to cough.
“Oh no.” Silver said in between coughs. His head then began to pound as his ears were filled with static and his vision became blurry.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Dash asked, “You alright?”
“Dash,” Silver groaned, “you have to listen.”
“I don’t know.” Dash said with an evil grin as she looked away. She didn’t comprehend the situation, “I’m still waiting for that apology.”
“Shut up for one second!” Silver shouted, “Please!”
“I suppose since you said please.” Dash said smugly. She turned to face and paused when she got a good look at him. The human was sweating heavily and his eyes were contracted.
“Are you alright?” Dash said, forgetting to be mean to Silver, “Did you eat some weird mushrooms or something?”
“No! Now listen,” Silver coughed, “Get out of here. Fly away as fast as you can. Find Twilight and tell her there is something very evil in the woods. If the worst comes to worst, tell her to not pick up any pieces of paper in the woods and to not try to find my body-”
“Whoa there!” Dash said, now positively alarmed, “What’s with the whole ‘not to try to find your body’ stick? That’s probably the mushrooms talking. Let’s get you to Ponyville and-”
She tried to place a hoof on Silver, but he quickly swatted it. Dash tried again, but then stopped,
“Hey,” she said, looking beyond Silver, “who’s that?”
Silver gulped. He slowly turned around and saw his reaper: Slenderman, standing menacingly at the edge of the clearing.
“RUN!” Silver shouted. He grabbed Dash and threw her into the air. Before the pegasus could recover, Silver ran into the woods again. Sprinting as fast as he could, he weaved through the woods until he was sure he bought himself some time. He tried to think of a plan, but all that came to his head was, ‘I’m going to die’.
He tugged the collar of his shirt in anxiousness when he felt a string. Not just a string, the angel coin’s string.
“I’m saved!” Silver cried in joy as happy tears rolled down his face. He unhooked his angel coin with fumbling fingers and took in a deep breath, “I wish that Slenderman was gone. Right!” Silver flipped the coin, caught it, and then saw the angel holding his left hand up. That left hand might as well have been a middle finger.
“I wish I knew where the pages of slenderman are located! Left!” Silver said in desperation. He flipped, caught, and saw the angel holding his right hand up.
“Come on!” Silver said, “I’m literally going to die! I know you are really low on energy, but please, help me! I wish Slenderman was gone! Right!”
Again, the angel was raising his left hand. Before Silver could panic anymore, his vision was beginning to blur again. Without any other options, he ran deeper into the woods, in a search for the other pages.
“Almost there.” He gasped as he looked at the seven pages in his hands. The strange thing was that after the seventh page, his vision hadn’t gotten blurry in a while and there was no static in his ear. This gave Silver hope that maybe the monster finally left.
He breathed a sigh of relief, only to have a sudden fit of coughing, Almost instantly, his vision and hearing were on the fritz. He looked around and saw the creature a couple feet away.
“Oh just go back to hell!” Silver growled. His fear for Slenderman was now coupled with the annoyance of having to play its awful game. The creature didn’t seem to like Silver’s words, since he extended a black tentacle from his back and it went rocketing toward Silver.
The human barely jumped out of the way and the tentacle annihilated the tree he was resting on and a couple other trees. Silver waved the dust away and began to crawl away. As he tried to escape, he saw, just a couple of meters away, the final page on one of the fallen trees. He weakly crawled toward the page, but the Slenderman stepped in front of him.
Silver’s vision and hearing were now all but gone. He couldn’t utter a single plea since the coughing was now almost unbearable. So he stayed on the ground and just waited for death.
‘So this is how it ends.’ Silver thought, ‘Tired, alone, and hungry while a jackass in a suit uses his tentacles to pierce my body. All in all, not the worst way to go.’
Slenderman bent down to the human, but the creature was suddenly sent flying away by an unseen force.
‘Dammit God,’ Silver thought, ‘stop teasing me with false hope.’
He suddenly felt himself being lifted up into the air. As his vision and hearing returned, he looked at what was carrying him. He was shocked to see that it was Rainbow Dash, and she appeared to be talking,
“-really lucky you’re not a fat guy!” Dash grunted as she carried Silver out of the wood, “Or else this would be really difficult.”
“I’ve eaten nothing but fruit since I came to Equestria,” Silver said weakly, “If anything, I lost weight.”
“It’s really hard to tell.” Dash joked as she finally managed to lift the human above the tree line and into the sunlight.
“How in Equestria did you find me?” Silver asked.
“Well it’s kind of hard to miss that.” Dash said, pointing down below. Silver looked and saw that Slenderman had knocked down so many trees that it left an identifiable crater.
“Where’s Twilight?” Silver asked.
“Probably back at the library.” Dash said, “For your information, I don’t follow orders. So instead of listening to you, I decided to go looking for you. It’s a good thing you’re so hard to be taken seriously, or else you’d probably be that thing’s dinner.”
“Thank you, Dash.” Silver muttered, “Thank you.”
“Don’t get sappy on me now, Silver.” Dash scolded, “Because I don’t do sappy.”
Silver chuckled. He was finally able to relax for about five seconds before a large, black tentacle went shooting toward Dash.
“Look out!” Silver yelled as he spotted the tentacle. Dash turned to see it in time to dodge it.
“Where did that thing come from?!” Dash said.
“From Slenderman!”
“But we’re high in the sky!”
“It doesn’t matter.” Silver said, his pessimism setting in, “It can stretch his tentacles for who knows how far. Dash, he only wants me, so just-”
“Don’t give me than ‘self-less hero’ garbage!” Dash barked as she quickened her speed, “I’m not going to abandon you, so shut up! Besides, I’m much quicker than anything this slender-thing could throw at me.”
At that moment, another large tentacle torpedoed out of the woods below. This one was much longer than the last one and it continued to grow. Soon, it was towering over the pegasus and the human.
“Um, Dash.” Silver said weakly as the tentacle tower quickly began to drop on the two, “we got trouble.”
“I know!” Dash said. She flew even faster than before, but she was still unable to get past the descending tentacle.
“For the love of all things holy!” Silver yelled when the black mass was almost upon them, “Stop flying straight and move left or right!”
“Well duh!” Dash said, but by the look on her face, she hadn’t thought of that. She swerved to her left, but the tentacle easily turned direction and landed a perfect hit on the pegasus. Dash cried in pain as she and Silver were swatted out of the sky.
“Hold on, Silver!” Dash cried as she tried to regain flight. She looked to the human and saw that he appeared to be completely petrified.
“You really are afraid of a lot of things.” Dash noted. She looked below and saw that they were heading straight for a raging river, which lead to a large waterfall.
“Of course.” Dash muttered darkly at her and the human’s predicament. She extended her wings and tried to reduce the speed of their fall as best she could. The landed hard into the river and were immediately swept by the current. Dash dragged her and the human back to the surface only to collide with a massive rock. The pegasus cried in pain as her right wing seared with pain.
“And this just keeps getting better and better!” Dash said through her teeth. She was sure her wing was sprained. Dash held Silver up by his face and shook him vigorously, “Wake up already!” Dash said, “I need some help.”
She then proceeded to smack Silver’s face.
*Smack*
*Smack* *Smack*
*Smack* *Smack* *Smack*
Silver’s eyes shot opened, “Who? What? When? Where? Why? And how?” he said in confusion.
*Smack* *Smack* *Smack* *Smack*
“Ow!” Silver cried as he massaged his face, “What was that for?!”
“Sorry, force of habit.” Dash said, smiling slightly, “Now that you got some beauty sleep, which you really did need, you can help me save your life !”
Silver quickly looked around at their current predicament, “Can’t you fly us out?”
Dash showed him her busted wing and he sighed, “Is everything in this world trying to kill us?”
“Quit being so pessimistic, Silver.” Dash said, “Since you can’t swim, I’m gonna need some support to get us to shore. Try to look for something we can use.”
“Like this?” Silver said, holding a large vine that was connected to a tree on land.
“How in Equestria did that get here?” Dash said in awe.
“Deus Ex Machina.” Silver said, “Now climb on my back while I pull us to shore.”
“Why can’t I pull us to shore?”
Silver twiddled his fingers, “Because evolution. Now shut up and hop on.”
Dash rolled her eyes good-naturedly and hopped onto Silver’s back. The human took a deep breath before he began to slowly pull them back to land.
“Finally,” Dash said as they neared the shore, “something good happened for a change.”
Silver immediately stopped pulling and turned back to Dash, “Why would you say that?” he said worriedly.
Dash raised an eyebrow, “What’s wrong?”
Her answer came when the vine Silver was holding began to rip from the tree’s branch.
“That.” Silver said tiredly as he pointed to the nearly torn vine. He then chuckled darkly, “I swear, Dash, this friendship-filled world is going to be the death of me.”
The vine snapped and the two were instantly swept by the river. They screamed for what seemed like an eternity until they reached the waterfall. Silver’s mind was blank. All he knew was that Dash was on clinging around his neck and he was still holding the long vine. As the human and pegasus fell with the waterfall, the vine in Silver’s hand somehow snagged in between two rocks, quickly stopping there plummet.
Dash blinked a couple of times as though not daring to believe her eyes, “We’re alive.”
“Oh thank whatever God there is!” Silver said. He looked at the vine, “I love you, viney. If you were a woman, I would marry you in a heartbeat.”
Dash snorted, “You kind of snapped, didn’t you?”
“Just a bit.” Silver said and then laughed hysterically, “Oh my God!”
“Anyways,” Dash said, unsure whether the human was still right in his head, “now what do we do?”
Silver looked up and down and judged that they were about half way down the waterfall. Below them was another river and a small forest.
“Are your wings okay enough to glide down to those trees?” Silver asked, pointing below.
Dash judged the distance, “I doubt I could carry you for that long.”
“Then how about just yourself.”
Dash scoffed, “Seriously! You’re still on that.”
“Damn it, Dash.” Silver said, “I’m a dead man walking. I needed to get the eight pages of Slenderman so that monster would leave me alone, but I lost the seven pages I had when we crashed into the river. So might as well save yourself and leave me to die in piece.”
“Are all humans this melodramatic?” Dash asked.
“That’s racist.”
“Whatever. Can’t you just use your angel coin to wish us to the ground?”
Silver looked at Dash, “How did you about the angel coin?”
Dash shifted uncomfortably, “Um, lucky guess?”
“So you and the other ponies were eavesdropping on Twilight and I during my first night here!”
“Enough about the past! Just get us down there.”
“Fine.” Silver took his angel coin and flipped it, “I wish Dash and I were on the ground. Right!” Silver caught the coin and it was left.
“So it didn't work?” Dash asked.
“Yep.” Silver said sullenly, “And I can’t wish Slenderman away, so don’t ask.”
“Can’t you wish you can fly us down?”
Silver flipped the coin again, but the result was not in his favor.
“Why don’t you just carry us down?” Dash asked irritably.
Silver barked a laugh, “Are you serious? I can barely walk down a hill without tripping on my own feet. Do you really think I’m agile enough to scale down a cliff?
Dash looked at Silver, and then at the coin.
Silver sighed for what seemed like the millionth time, “Fine, I’ll fail again.” The human flipped the coin, “I wish I was agile. Left!” Silver caught the coin and, somehow, the angel showed the angel holding his left hand up.
“Sweet!” Dash said as she eyeballed the coin, “Now what?”
Silver didn’t answer. He was staring intently at the cliff wall. Before the wish, he just saw a bunch of rocks, but now, all he saw were stepping stones and platforms.
“Hang on, Dash.” Silver said as he placed the angel coin around his neck, “I’m about to be awesome.”
“I doubt that.” Dash said, but she did smile in anticipation.
“Goodbye, Viney” Silver said as he gripped the vine, “I’ll always remember you.”
Silver began to swing back and forth until he let go and grabbed onto a natural ledge on the cliff wall. He then quickly scaled down the Cliffside.
“We might actually make it.” Dash said, surprised.
“Well you might, but I’m not.” Silver said, “Since I’m probably gonna die soon; I should probably apologize for throwing you into the river.”
“Is there even any doubt that you shouldn’t?”
Silver laughed, “Alright, alright. I’m sorry a tossed you into the river.”
“Don’t sweat it. You could make it up to me when we get back home.”
Silver ignored that last part, “And I’m sorry that I was mad at you for letting those mares beat the ever-loving crap out of me.”
Dash looked confused, “Why are you apologizing for that? Shouldn’t I be the one doing that?”
“Nah, you don’t have to anymore. It turns out that having multiple near-death experiences causes a person to really think about their life. I realized that what you did wasn’t to spite me. It was to protect Twilight. You thought I was playing with her emotions, so you did what any good friend would do. I thought that you betrayed me, but you can’t really betray someone who isn’t your friend, right? I mean, I’m just some guy you just met.”
“Yep, the first time I saw you, all I saw was a suspicious, crazy, flailing monkey.” Dash said cheerfully, “But hey, that’s in the past. Now, I just think of you as an alright monkey.”
“So are we, like, friends now?”
“If you get us out of here, then you’ll be cool enough to be my friend.”
Before Silver could respond, his ears were filled with static and his vision was gone again. He screamed and lost his grip. Thankfully, he had already scaled down most of the cliff, so the fall was not too bad. Dash quickly got up and tried to get the human to stand, but he seemed to be having a seizure.
“RUN, DASH!” he yelled.
Rainbow turned around and was met face to face with the towering Slenderman. It stared at the two, which confused Dash,
“How in Equestria can you see if you don’t have any eyes?” The pegasus asked. Slenderman ignored that comment and walked toward the spazzing human. However, he was blocked by Rainbow.
“If you want to get to him, you gotta go through me first.” She said. She then used her one good wing to propel herself up and landed an uppercut on Slenderman’s face. The creature stood its ground, apparently unfazed by the attack.
“Oh, horse-feathers.” Dash said. The pegasus waited for the creature to make its move, but it didn’t. Instead, it just fell backwards and did not move.
Silver stopped flailing on the ground and got up. His senses were back and he saw Dash standing over Slenderman,
“Jesus, Dash!” Silver said in awe as he stood up and walked toward the pegasus, “What did you do?”
“I hit him.” Dash said coolly.
“With what ?!”
“With this bad girl.” Dash said, gesturing to her right hook, “I’m gonna call this little beauty Falcon.”
Slenderman lifted its head and it held its chin. It seemed that it was in pain.
“How is your kind scared of this punk?” Dash asked the human, “I mean, I knocked it out with one hit!”
“No one has ever really punched Slenderman.” Silver said, astonished at what he was seeing, “We were all just too scare to get near it because of the things that happen to use when it is close by, but now…”
Silver took a deep breath, and then ran toward the pained creature. Silver then kicked Slenderman where its nose should have been and the monster was knocked down again.
“This is for all of the people you made piss their pants!” Silver said as he proceeded to kick the crap out of Slenderman, who couldn’t do much but wither in pain.
“Hey, don’t’ steal all the fun.” Dash said. She then began to punch Slenderman’s face, “This is for busting my wing!”
The two viciously beat Slenderman until they were sure he was out cold. They were exhausted, but happy.
“You think he’s still going to come after you?” Dash said as she stared down at Slenderman.
“After that beating, I doubt he’ll be going after anyone anytime soon.” Silver said. He looked down at Slenderman, the thing that had been stalking him all day. It gave him pleasure to see the creature beaten, but it wasn’t enough. Silver walked to the creature’s feet and began to take off its shoes.
“What are you doing?” Dash asked.
“I’m gonna take this bastard’s suit.”
“Is that some kind of human tradition? Do you take the clothes of your enemies?”
“You can say that.” Silver looked at Dash and smiled, “Wanna help, buddy?”
Dash laughed, “Sure thing, pal.” She then began to take off Slenderman’s coat. And so it was that Silver and Dash finally began to enjoy their strange bonding experience.
Whenever there's trouble, there's always a Silver Lining
“And that’s how you can take over the world. Any questions?”
The three squirrels looked up at the teenager sitting on the bench. They stared at him for a while before going back to their more interesting acorns.
“Are you kidding me?” the boy said indignantly, “I just gave you valuable information, and you just play it off as though I commented on the weather?!”
The squirrels didn’t bother to look at him as they scurried away.
“Jerks.” The boy sighed. He was exhausted after about thirty minutes of talking. He stood up from the park bench and began to stretch his legs. It was almost sunset and the families were slowly leaving behind their day of fun. The boy checked his watch and saw that it was exactly six o’ clock.
He looked up and saw another boy in a tuxedo running toward him. The runner was about the same age as the squirrel talker, but was a bit heavier. The squirrel talker saw him running and couldn’t resist saying out loud, “You came in like a wrecking ball! You never meant to start a war !”
The runner immediately stopped and began to walk the other direction.
“Oh come on, don’t be like that, Angel” The singer said as he quickly caught up to his friend, “You already know I’m a jerk. Come on, man, let’s hug it out.”
He hugged his friend, who began to struggle,
“You’re an a-hole.” Angel said, but he smiled and hugged back.
“Happy birthday, Angel.”
“Thanks,” Angel’s smile turned impish, “Silver Lining.”
The other boy, Silver, groaned, “Really?”
“Come on, it’s my birthday.” Angel said excitedly, “And can you call me by my pony name?”
Silver rolled his eyes and smiled, “Happy birthday, Righteous Sword.”
Angel-Righteous Sword- giggled, “Thank you, Silver.”
Silver pinched the bridge of his nose, “Brony friends, I swear.” He sighed. Silver then grinned, “Close your eyes.”
Angel turned his head sideways, “What?”
“Just do it.”
“Are you going to punch me?”
“No.”
“Kick me?”
“No.”
“Put a bag over my head, pants me, and then push me into oncoming traffic?”
“That was one time when we were seven, I apologized, and no.”
“Okay.” Angel said cheerfully. He closed his eyes, but protected his vitals. After a moment, Silver said,
“Open them.”
Angel opened his eyes and saw Silver was holding a large present box.
“What the- where did- how did you hide that?!”
Silver winked, “I have my ways.”
Angel took the present and began unwrapping it, “Let me guess, it’s mostly filled with Styrofoam and has a letter at the bottom with fifty dollars in it.”
“Nope.”
“One hundred dollars?!” Angel said excitedly. He tore open the top and began to move away the yellow Styrofoam that cluttered the interior. He reached to the very bottom and, instead of feeling paper, he felt something like fur. He grabbed the object, pulled it out of the box, and gaped at it.
“Surprise!” Silver said, “I got you a pony plushy. I remember you saying how your favorite was, um, the yellow one Fluttershy, so I went to the mall and bought it. Let me tell you that I got lucky because it was the last one and I saw a couple of other guys looking at it. Lucky for you, I have no sense of dignity, so I picked it up in front of the whole store and bought it. Do you like it?”
Angel didn’t reply as he stared at his Fluttershy plushy. He then began to cry.
“Whoa, what happened?” Silver said confused, and worriedly, “I thought she was your favorite. Hey, look, I’m sorry. I’ll go get the other flying one. You know, the rainbow-”
Angel sobbed louder and then latched himself at Silver.
“Thank you!” the birthday boy sobbed.
Silver was completely thrown off by this sudden hug. He was glad he wore a black sweater since the tears wouldn’t be as visible. As he waited, Silver spotted a family observing the two teenagers.
“Nothing to see here folks!” Silver called as he waved at the family. He then pointed at Angel, “He’s a brony!”
The family look confused, except for the father, who nodded knowingly and herded away his family.
Eventually, Angel let go of Silver,
“Thank you so much!” Angel gasped, wiping away some of his tears.
“Oh, so you did like it.”
“Like it?” Angel exasperated, “I love it! This is the first ever brony present I got!”
Silver raised an eyebrow, “Really? Your parents, sisters, and brothers didn’t get you anything pony.”
Angel grimaced, “No.”
Silver patted his friend on his shoulder reassuringly, “Then I guess it’s a good thing you have me for a friend.”
Angel barked a laugh, “Yeah, that’s about the only good thing.”
“Ohhhhhhhhhh!” Silver said dramatically as he ran circles around his friend, “What a dis!”
Angel shook his head and grinned, “Can you blame me? I mean, yeah you got me a plushy, but look what my grandma gave me.”
Angel reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin. Silver walked to his friend and picked up the small object. As soon as he got a good look at it, his eyes widened and immediately hid it between his hands.
“Dude!” Silver whispered, “Is this real gold ?!”
“Yeah!” Angel said amusingly, “Check out the picture on it?”
Silver carefully opened his hands and looked at the coin. Angel scoffed, took the coin, and held it in front of Silver, who could see an angel on it. The angel was holding his right arm up, and when Angel turned the coin over, the angel was holding his left arm up.
“It’s an angel coin.” Angel said excitedly.
“So, are you gonna sell it or something?” Silver asked.
Angel’s eyes widened, “Hell no! I’m gonna make a wish with it.”
…
Silver sighed, “So, your gonna throw your gold, angel coin, in a wishing well?”
“Of course not! Don’t you get it? This is a wish granting coin.”
…
“Okay,” Silver pinched the bridge of his nose, “please elaborate now, or else I’m gonna slap you for acting unnecessarily crazy.”
“My grandma told me stories about how this coin has been granting wishes for my family for generations. Each new generation gets one wish. My grandmother didn’t believe that it grant wishes either, but she believed when she made a wish for true love, and the next minute, she met my grandpa. They have been happily married ever since.”
Silver clapped, “Touching story. I give it four out of five stars.”
“You still don’t believe, right?”
“Yep.”
“Then I’ll show you. I’m gonna make a wish.”
“What is your wish? Every My Little Pony plushy ever.”
“Nope,” Angel grinned, “I’m gonna wish to go to Equestria.”
…
“You mean the magical land where the ponies live peacefully?” Silver inquired.
“Yes indeed!”
“Yeah…” Silver quickly took the coin from Angel, “I’m gonna have to stop you there.”
“What? Why?”
“Well,” Silver started to blush, “you might get a little…excited when you go to Equestria.”
“Well duh! Any brony would be pumped.”
“No, what I mean is that you might get…overexcited when you get there.”
“I don’t follow…”
Silver grimaced as he pulled out his phone. After a quick search on the internet, he started to read off words to Angel,
“Plot…Wingboner…Clop-”
“OH MY GOD!” Angel cried, his cheeks a deep crimson.
“Hey, I’m not judging.” Silver said defensively, “I’m just saying that it may be a bad idea for-”
“I’m not a clopper!”
“Your browser history seems to disagree.” Silver said slyly. Angel was silent after that, “A word of advice, never leave your history open. And always clear that thing. Anyways, you might accidentally offend or traumatize one of the innocent ponies.”
There was silence after that little reveal. The two friends didn’t say anything until Angel opened his mouth,
“Fine, if you think you’re better suited for Equestria-”
“Hold the phone. I never said-”
“Then we’ll let fate decide who will go.” Angel said, disregarding Silver’s protest. The birthday boy grabbed his coin and readied it, “I wish that either I or Silver goes to the magical land of Equestria. Call it!”
“You’re being stupid.”
“I call right!” Angel flipped the coin. Time seemed to slow, at least for Angel, as the coin reached its peak and slowly drifted down. Angel was sweating bullets while Silver looked annoyed.
The coin clattered to the floor. Both boys looked at it and saw the angel raising its left arm.
“Sorry buddy.” Silver said sincerely as he picked the coin, “How about best 2 out of-”
“I don’t need your pity.” Angel said dramatically, but he grinned, “Come on, my parents are waiting. We have reservations at-”
Angel just realized his best friend was missing. He looked all around, but there was no sign of him. Angel began to panic as the slow realization of what just happened,
“Oh come on!” He shouted into the sky.
“Huh.” Silver said emotionlessly, “how about that.” He looked at the coin in his hands, “I guess you could grant wishes.” He took a deep breath of the clean air and opened his mouth.
“We’re coming, Applebloom! Hurry up, Sweetie Belle!”
“Right behind you, Scootaloo.”
The three fillies, an earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn, raced down a grass meadow. Applebloom was leading the team in its latest crusader mission: bird watching.
“There it is!” Scootaloo cried, pointing to a rock formation up ahead. There standing on one of the rocks, was a Blue Jay.
“Alright, ready girls?” Applebloom said determinedly.
Scootaloo nodded vigorously as she pulled out binoculars and Sweetie Belle pulled out a book titled, ‘Bird facts for dummies ’.
The girls observed the bird intensively. They kept checking their book for facts, and their flanks for any sign of a Cutie Mark. After a while, the bird opened its beak.
Sweetie Belle looked at the book, “Look girls; it says that the Blue Jay has a variety of calls.”
The three fillies watched with baited breath as the bird took a deep breath,
“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-”
The three fillies jumped into the air in surprise by the sudden voice. The Blue Jay immediately took off out of fear.
“What in tarnation is that?” Applebloom asked as the noise continued.
“I have no idea.” Scootaloo said, but she then grinned, “Wanna find out?”
Sweetie Belle smiled, “We can get our Cutie Marks in investigation.”
“Alright then,” Applebloom grinned, “on the count of three: one…two…three!”
They all shouted, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS INVESTIAGTORS! YAY!”
And they tore down the meadow to see what made that other worldly noise.
Whenever there's trouble, there's always a Silver Lining
Chp 6: Manehattan=What?! part 2
The six pony friends and dragon were having the time of their lives as they sailed on a large yacht. Rarity was still singing about the wonders of Manehattan and the rest of the ponies were staring at a giant, green statue of a green robed pony. As they marveled at the architecture masterpiece, Twilight said, “This, Silver, is called the Statue of Harmony. It is a neoclassical architecture design and was built roughly two hundred years ago.” She turned to her right, “It was a present from-”
Twilight stopped talking when she realized that her student was not standing next to her.
“Have you seen Silver?” Twilight asked Rainbow Dash, who was on her other side.
“He’s probably in the bathroom or something.” Dash said, slightly distracted by the amazing view.
“I think I’m gonna go find him.” Twilight said. She began to walk away, but Dash said, “Relax, Twi. Silver is a big human, I think. I’m pretty sure he can take care of himself.”
“TWILIGHT!” the disguised human yelled, “RARITY, RAINBOW DASH, APPLEJACK, PINKIE PIE, FLUTTERSHY!” The panic within Silver was rising quickly. He was becoming more and more desperate, “SPIKE!”
A door to a coffee shop opened and a pony stepped out, holding a cup of coffee. Silver wasn’t looking where he was going, so he crashed into the unsuspecting shopper. As they collided the coffee cup was sent flying above. As the cup fell, Silver, with his disguised human arm and fingers, managed to catch the cup.
“Did you see that?!” Silver asked the pony, who had a light cyan mane, a light amberish gray coat and a sailor collar, “I actually caught this thing! That was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever did!”
Thankfully, the human’s amazing feat caused him to forget his troubles. The shopper groaned as she got back onto her hooves.
“I’m really sorry about.” Silver said, holding up the coffee (he wondered how he looked to other ponies as he held the cup with his fingers).
“Don’t worry.” She said, “It was my fault.”
She went to grab the coffee, but Silver took it out of her reach.
“Whoa, hold up.” Silver said, raising an eyebrow, “How is it your fault? I was the one who crashed to you.”
“I don’t know. It just is.” The pony said dismissively, “Can I just please just have back the coffee?”
“Not until you insult me for running into you.” Silver said stubbornly, holding the coffee over his head.
The pony now looked annoyed and scared. She sighed, “Um, watch where you’re going, um, you, um, jerk?”
“Okay.” Silver said, smiling. He handed back the coffee to the pony. She bowed her head and walked away, but not before giving Silver a ‘You’re strange’ look. Silver, however, just smiled and waved goodbye. He was always a guy that tried to give shy people some back-bone, but the shy people were usually put off by his unorthodox technique.
It was then that Silver heard the most relieving noise he ever heard; Rarity’s singing. He sprinted toward the source and found Rarity swinging around a lamp post. He then saw the girls finish their song and he silently joined them. Next thing he knew, they were all someplace different, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was that he was no longer alone.
“So, what do you think of Manehattan?” Twilight asked Silver, completely oblivious that he was gone.
“Interesting.” Silver said.
“Great, because you’ll be taking a test on Manehattan when we return home.”
‘Buck!' Silver thought. He thought about telling Twilight that he was lost during her lesson, but he knew she would either get angry with herself or with him, so he kept his mouth shut.
Twilight turned to Rarity, “Is there anything left to do we can help you with?”
“Nothing I can think of.” Rarity said. She then went on to explain to her friends all about her new dresses and material. Silver, not being that interested in fashion, looked around the area. Now that he wasn’t panicking, he could actually enjoy the city. He looked up at the clear blue and was surprised that rain clouds were quickly forming.
“Um, Twilight, what’s happening?” Silver asked his mentor.
It was then that his ear’s shattered when Rarity screamed, “TAXI!”
“What’s happening?” Silver cried; he had momentarily gone slightly deaf.
“Rarity has ten minutes to make it to the fashion show.” Applejack answered as they all ran to their friend. Silver followed and they soon found a taxi, but it had the longest line they’ve ever seen.
Twilight walked up to the pony who was the first in line, “Please won't you let her have this taxi? She has somewhere very important to be right away!”
The pony said, “Not likely! She can get in line like the rest of us!”
“Whoa! Hold up!” Silver told the pony, “Do you know who this is? This is Princess Twilight Sparkle!”
“I doubt it.” The pony said obnoxiously, “She’s the fifth ‘Twilight Sparkle’ I’ve seen today.” He then pointed to a corner, and the group was surprised to see three ponies cosplaying as the alicorn princess.
The pony turned to Twilight, “I have to say that your costume needs the most work.”
“Okay, buddy,” Silver said, now very annoyed, “there’s no need to be a dick.”
“Easy, Silver.” Twilight said, sensing her pupil’s hostility, “We’ll just need to find another taxi.”
“But where?” Rainbow said, “It’s like ever pony in Manehattan wants a cab.”
It was at that moment that another taxi appeared in front of them. The driver flashed a friendly grin to the ponies, “New wheel works like a charm. So now which of you nice folks are hoppin' in?”
Rarity immediately jumped on the cab, “Fashion runway plaza in seven minutes. Can you make it?”
“Hang on!” the cabbie said before rocketing to the plaza.
The human, dragon, and ponies sighed in relief.
“It’s a good thing that Rarity already dropped off her dresses at the plaza, huh?” Silver said. He turned to the rest, and was surprised to see their shocked faces,
“THE DRESSES!” they all shouted.
“What about the dresses?”
“They’re still at the hotel!” Twilight said.
Silver saw the ponies devising up plans to get the dresses from the hotel to the plaza. He then saw that the jerk pony was getting on the cab.
“Do y’all trust me?” Silver asked the group.
“What?” they said
“Do y’all trust me?” he repeated.
They all shared an expression. Twilight said, “Um, yes? Why wouldn’t we?”
“Okay then.” Silver said. He took a deep breath before sprinting to the jerk pony on the cab. He jumped into the cab, pushed the pony out, and turned to his friends, “GET IN NOW!”
The ponies were so shocked that they just followed his lead and jumped into the cab.
“TO THE MANE FAIR HOTEL!” Silver commanded the cabbie, who merely shrugged and took off.
Twilight ran after Silver, “Where are you going?!”
“I’m taking the dresses to the plaza!” Silver answered, racing through crowds of ponies.
“But you don’t know where it is!”
“Trust me!”
Silver rounded a corner and then entered an alley way. He took the angel coin off his necklace,
“I wish me and the dresses were at the fashion runway plaza where Rarity is at. Right!” he flipped the coin and then caught it; he looked at it and saw the angel using its right arm.
Silver looked up and he knew he was at the entrance to the plaza. He entered with the dresses and saw Rarity sobbing on the floor.
“Are you going to start singing about your ruined life now?” Silver asked.
Rarity looked up and was about to say something, but she stopped when she saw the rack of dresses. Her face lit up, “Thank you so much!” Rarity gave the human a quick hug before taking the rack and running through a pair of double doors.
Silver stood at the entrance, proud of his action. It was then that he realized that he had no idea how to make it back to the hotel. He thought about using another wish, but decided to just wait until Rarity was finished with her business so she could lead the way back to the hotel.
The entrance door opened and Silver turned around to see who entered. It was the same mare he bumped into earlier today. She was still carrying the coffee, but she was now also carrying piles of bags on her back.
“Do you need any help?” Silver asked.
“No, I’m okay.” She replied.
“Well too bad, because you’re getting my help.” Silver said before taking a couple of bags off her back.
The pony stared at him, “Then why would you ask if I wanted your help?”
“Common courtesy.”
“It really is unnecessary,” she smiled, “but thank you. My name is Coco Pommel.” She held up a hoof.
Silver took the hoof, “My name is Silver Lining. So, where are we taking these bags?”
“To Suri Polomare. She’s my employer, and she doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
With that, the two quickened their steps and entered through the double doors. The room they entered was huge. Silver could see the runway where models walked on and behind it was the backstage area. The rest of the room was taken up by stands for the audience to sit in.
Coco led Silver to what appeared to be a dressing room,
“You could leave the stuff here. I can handle the rest.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, and thanks again.”
“No problem. By the way, do you know where the contestants are?”
“Check the rest of the dressing rooms. They’re probably putting their finishing touches on their designs.”
“Thank you.” Silver waved goodbye to Coco before walking to the rooms next door. After the third try, Silver found Rarity talking to a pink pony.
Silver knocked on the door, “Hey, how’s it going?”
Rarity turned and smiled, “Silver, so glad you’re here.” She turned and pointed to the pink pony, “This is Suri Polomare; an old acquaintance of mine.”
“Charmed.” Suri said, giving Silver a pleasant smile. Human couldn’t help but get a strange vibe from Suri. He chalked it up to his paranoia and ignored it.
“Do you need any more help, Rarity?” Silver asked.
“Don’t worry, darling. I’m just fine.”
“I’m glad you are.” Suri said, “I can’t find the right accent for my dresses.” She then turned to Rarity’s dresses, “Wow, this is simply amazing. Do you mind if I take just a swatch?”
“Of course not, I have loads more. Let me just find a roll…”
“Is this it?” Silver asked, holding up a roll of wavy, purple material.
“That’s it.” Rarity said, “Do you mind giving some to Suri?”
“Okay.” Silver said. He tore of a small strip and handed it to Suri, “Here you go.”
Suri took the strip, “Thank you, but do you mind if I just get a bit more?”
Silver raised an eyebrow, “I thought you just wanted a swatch?”
“Yes, of course, but this,” she held up the strip, “it’s more of a thread.”
“Come now, Silver,” Rarity said, taking the whole roll and handing it to Suri, “there’s no need to be so stingy.”
“Thank you very much, Rarity.” Suri said gratefully.
“Don’t think about it.” Rarity said. She then turned to Silver, “I think I’ll have to ask Twilight if I can teach you a thing or two about generosity.”
Silver shrugged, “She asked for a swatch, so I gave her a swatch.”
“Sometimes, it’s best to give others more than what they ask for.”
“Whatever you say.” Silver said. He turned to Suri, but she was gone.
“Where did Suri go?”
“Probably to go and work on her dresses.” Rarity said, “Do you mind waiting for me while I go and finish up my work here?”
“No problem.” Silver said. He walked outside, but then walked down the wall of dressing rooms. He was sure that there was only one Suri Polomare in the fashion contest, so he went to Coco’s room. He couldn’t explain it, but something about Suri seemed off. He was probably wrong, but he just wanted to make sure Suri was not going to be a threat to Rarity.
As he got closer to the room, Suri and Coco exited it. Silver quickly hid behind conveniently placed boxes and observed the pair. Suri was carrying Rarity’s fabric on her back and she was holding a cup of coffee. Coco was carrying all of Suri’s belongings on her back.
“I still can’t believe how easy it was to get that hick to give me her fabric.” Suri said in an obnoxious voice, “It just goes to show you that she doesn’t belong. You better remember Coco; this is no place for the weak and generous.” She took a sip from her coffee and immediately spat it out, “What is this?!” she said, turning to her assistant.
“Um, hot coffee?” Coco said.
“Warm coffee!” Suri said, “What good to me is it to me warm?” and she dumped the coffee on Coco’s head.
“Hey!” Silver shouted, running toward them, “What the hell was that for?!”
Suri turned to Silver and adopted her kind voice again, “Oh, don’t worry. Poor, clumsy Coco just spilled some coffee on herself. Right, Coco?”
Coco just nodded her head in agreement.
“Like hell she spilled it on herself.” Silver said, “I saw that you dumped it on her.”
“I don’t know what-”
“Cut the crap, Suri. I knew there was something strange about you, but I never took you for a bitch.”
…
“Excuse me” Suri said, her kind voice gone now, “What did you call me?”
“You heard me. And where I come, bitches don’t get gifts.” He quickly grabbed Rarity’s fabric and took it. Suri, however, grabbed it as well and began to pull. Silver wondered how Suri had a strong grip without fingers. Suri then yelled, “Security!”
“Silver, what are you doing?!”
Silver turned and saw Rarity looking shocked as two beefy looking pony security guards came.
“What is the problem here?” one of the security guards said. He then turned to Rarity, “Do you know him?”
Before Rarity could answer, Silver said, “She doesn’t know me, and I don’t know her.”
“Then why does she know you’re name?” the other security guard said.
Silver grinned, “She doesn’t. She probably just saw my silver hair, so she called me Silver. The white unicorn stranger is in no way responsible for me. I’m just a crazy pony that hates fashion.”
“Then we’ll have to ask you to leave.”
“I could do that, but because I’m crazy…” he punched one of the guards in the face and ran away, leaving behind three confused mares and two confused guards.
“And stay out!” the security guards said before slamming the doors behind them.
Silver groaned as he got to his feet, “I just got thrown out of a fashion runway by two pony security guards. What the hell did I do in the past life to deserve this?”
Author's Note
Just to clarify, Silver is still human. He didn't transform into a pony, but other ponies just think he looks like one.
