The rhyming verses played melodiously until Silver Ocean woke up, or what he thought was “waking up”. Everything was blurry, as if he was looking through teared-up eyes. He wiped his brown eyes with a hoof and looked down. His body was sharp-looking. He looked up to find himself in the old Ponyville schoolhouse.

“This is where it happened…” whispered Silver Ocean, “...and the time too.” He spotted his past doppelganger talking to the Trottingham colt. A few golden bits were scattered among the green grass. He remembered this time. It had been the first time he had confronted him. He had jabbed his pen into Silver’s bag and cut it open. It was during recess, and a filly named Woodwind was being disciplined by Cheerilee, so she wasn’t there.

“Nice bits youze got there,” guffawed the colt. Silver turned and saw the slitted bag and swore.

“Youze talking to me little boy?” The colt grabbed the bandana that Silver usually wore and pulled him in close. Muzzle to muzzle, he whispered menacingly:

“My name is Red Glory,” he smiled a twisted grin, then continued, “and they don’t call me that for powdered drink mix.”

Silver Ocean was bewildered, both the past and the future. The past Silver was thinking how this pony, completely unprovoked, could suddenly snap at him. The future Silver was almost in a headache trying to comprehend his flashback. He had only gotten this once before. He had fallen off a bridge and got a concussion. He had seen his older brother, Golden Skies kill himself. A month later Golden Skies was found, dead, by an overdose of pills.

“Does this mean anything?!” future Silver yelled out. It comforted him to hear his own voice, almost like a lifeline to reality. He turned back to the fight; Red Glory had teeth marks on his neck and past Sliver’s hooves were bleeding.

“CHILDREN, DAMMIT!” Cheerilee stumbled out of the school house. She had been excusing Woodwind outside after the disciplinary note when she witnessed the brawl. She grabbed both of them by their ears and sat them down inside the school building. After the tongue-lashing the bell rang, and they both were seated as far away as possible from one another. Future Silver followed. He had noticed that no one could see him when Twist looked straight at him. He also discovered that nopony could touch him, for Twist proceeded to run through him and talk to Apple Bloom. He sat down at an empty desk, but just as he did that the world suddenly spun. He felt bile rise to his mouth, and he pitched forwards. The blurs of the outside world changed color, and he found himself, still in a flashback, on a dark road.

“I remember...I remember!” Silver circled around. He had waited here for the plan to take action, and just as he was thinking the rustling of bushes alerted him. He spun around and found him looking into two mahogany-colored eyes.

“You...me?” He knew that his past clone couldn’t hear him, but he whispered the words anyway. He heard the clop of hooves on the road, and he instinctively hurried into the bushes. He had rigged a tripwire to a tree, which led up a branch and fastened itself around a stone. He had thought he planned it perfectly. Red Glory would trip the wire, causing the stone to fall. The falling stone would make a string, also connected to it, pull taut. This pulled a bucket of water over, but the stone would fly up and hit the branch, stopping the heavy basin from injuring the Trottingham colt. The horrible memory had played out as he ran from the crime, but now he was in the middle of it. Red Glory hit the twine and stumbled, causing the stone to fall. The soft, pleasing whistle of the string running on the bark echoed through the night. The basin emptied its contents from above, causing it to splatter over Red Glory.

“WHAT THE ****!!” Red Glory shrieked in surprise and anger. However, the unexpected was still to come. A creaking sound, followed by the snapping of a branch caused Silver to look over. The branch which was used to stop the stone from going too far up snapped. This sound not only echoed through the night, but through Silver’s soul. The basin fell, but Red Glory managed to sidestep it. The heavy stone, pulled by the bucket’s momentum, whisked over the branch and towards Red Glory’s head.

CRACK! resounded through the dawn. This was the sound of a 3 hoof by 2 hoof stone colliding with a colt’s skull. Both past and future Silver yelled as blood splattered onto the path. Sliver ran, but a mare already heard and saw the victim. Silver sprinted as a few Ponyville’s Guards seem to materialize from shops and alleys. Silver, both of them, ran until they spotted the fence up ahead. He jumped, a leap of faith, and cleared the fence, but not quite. Silver’s tail caught on one of the fence posts and he plummeted toward the ground. His past clone’s face hit the cobblestones with a dull thud. Future Silver, however, had jumped clean over the barrier. He watched in helpless horror as the guard unhooked his tail from the fence’s spike and dragged him into the street. He wasn’t too far from the investigator’s station, nor was anypony out. Silver followed head hung low, but he noticed something peculiar. The place where his future cell would be was gone, the entire lower wall was featureless. As they walked through the door, Silver only managed to get a glimpse of Twilight and Inspector Penworth for the ground suddenly gave way. He saw a glimpse of a hat and a black and white mane, but it was all gone in a flash.

.:<=>:.

Silver Ocean regained consciousness on the cold prison floor. He was greeted by a trencher of food and voices outside.

“You think he’s going to eat da food?” Apparently the man was talking himself, for there was only one set of hooves visible through the slit.

“HELP ME I’M GOING INSANE!” Silver screamed through the slot.

The man chuckled in his deep voice and replied, “At least I’m not starven’ ya yet. Yet. They need yah alive fer da trial.”

Author’s note: Don’t get Silver (Silver Ocean) and Silver Spoon mixed up. She’s not taking place in this story.

Author's Note

Criticism is needed, not flaming.