1 - The Silver Tower

Two nine-foot-tall steel doors decorated with constellations of cobalt lines, the kind of doors that would look more at home on a palace, swung open silently to reveal a large and stark room that reminded one of a hotel lobby, except for how it seemed to be made from one continuous piece of dark grey steel. There was a bar/desk on the right where a Griffon secretary waited, there was a room in the corner you could only get to if you were willing to hop over and enter her part of the building, and on the far wall, there were the bare steel doors of a magic-powered elevator. Though a small effort had been made to make the place more welcoming, as the two trees on either side of the long and narrow orange carpet lined with blue that stretched from the main doors to the lone large elevator on the far wall would attest to, the pony who had placed these objects didn't seem to completely understand the concept that was 'Welcoming'. For one thing, the trees-and-carpet thing was basic, but the choice of trees was not. The trees on either side of the carpet, near the door, were eight-foot-tall unusually-thick bonsai trees with a redwood trunk and perfectly-spherical leaf formation residing in metal pots made from alternating curved stripes of steel, cold iron, and titanium, and compared to the far smaller ponies and the room around them, the gesture that placed those trees there felt hollow, much like a lot of other things in this building.

A lone brown Unicorn in a black suit by the name of Coffee Grounds entered the Silver Spire, flanked by two strong dark-coloured Pegasi in matching sunglasses and black suits. The sunglasses those Pegasi wore were enchanted to do nothing, not even guard their eyes from the sun. They just looked cool, which was all the cheap security were good at, really. Fitting, considering how their Cutie Mark talent was in Acting.

The Silver Spire they had just walked into was a thick monolithic multi-room six-storey skyscraper in uptown Canterlot, built by one pony and dedicated to the acquisition of one thing: Money. The mysterious Unicorn known as Silver Star had suddenly showed up in Canterlot one day, a sack of bits floating behind him as he strolled right through the front doors of one of the Canterlot headquarters of one of Equestria's finest cabbage buyers, sellers and suppliers. They had holdings and deals going on all over Equestria, buying the finest of cabbages from Earth Pony farms and placing them into the kitchens of high-end restaurants across town. Though accounts of what happened vary and rumours about the event range from 'A mind-controlling bird monster with eyes as black and vast and dark as the blackness of space was summoned' to 'He threatened everypony present with things no pony should ever be threatened with'. Regardless of what actually happened, the facts stated that he left the building an hour later, several thousand bits richer. With each day, he kept multiplying and multiplying his own funds, making deals and breaking them to make new ones and doing whatever it took to get ahead in this fast-paced game that anyone could play but few could win, a game where the winner laughed as they literally rolled in money while the losers were rendered homeless, faces pressed up against the glass as they stared at the winner like an orphan in a Jarls Chickens book. The Silver Tower was created to be the ultimate office and headquarters and home, and also a giant shining monument to himself, his mind, and his money. For this reason, it was as big as Canterlot's standards and safety regulations would allow it to be, even though the place was enchanted to be bigger on the inside. They said some buildings reflected their owners, and this was very true for the Silver Spire.

Coffee Grounds and his two guards, who he had ordered to avoid speaking due to the bad Manehattan accent they loved using more than they should, tentatively entered the room and looked at the Griffon, trying to ignore how the further in they got, the further away the warm and noisy outside world seemed to be. The Griffon was a focused and harsh-looking blue-and-white Pantherish/Hawklike beast that had her longer head-feathers pulled back into a loose black-banded ponytail with 'bangs' of feathers hanging down the sides of her avian face, which was adorned with a serious frown. A Griffon... an odd choice for a secretary- their tempers, passions and general demeanour wasn't exactly suited for subservience of any kind, let alone working as somepony's lowly secretary/personal assistant. If she was a mare, Coffee would make the usual assumption that his personal secretary assisted him with more than just his work, but as it stood... He just didn't see it.

Her head whipped around instantaneously, her cold golden eyes staring into Coffee's, and she stared at them for a long, tense moment, during which the entire world seemed to freeze. "Name?" She asked coldly, and Coffee found that he could once again breathe.

"Coffee Grounds, owner of The Stomping Grounds, hottest coffeehouse in Canterlot." Coffee said, plastering on a charming smile and beginning to not just layer his voice with honey, he was dumping honey onto his voice in industrial quantities with the aid of pulleys and levers and steam-powered cogs and very large vats. "I'm here to talk to your boss about selling our-"

"Follow me. Elevator's stuck, it can't go lower than the third floor. No flying allowed in the office." She stated, getting up and flying slowly towards the stairs.

"But you's is flying." Coffee's right-hand Pegasus pointed out. A Manehattanite would object to that accent and the incorrect usage of you's, but he was not a Manehattanite and there was not one here.

That Pegasus made a high-pitched squeak of terror as she suddenly appeared right in front of him, her wickedly sharp beak a quarter of an inch away from the space between his eyes. He scrambled away in surprise, wings fluttering uselessly in panic, and then he noticed how despite her hard, dangerous eyes spoke of an animalistic intensity, her actual facial expression looked completely calm, as if this was just par for the course.

"I work here." She answered boredly, and the three made a mental note to not ask her questions again as she resumed her slow flight back to the long flights of stairs, flying up gently as the three ponies followed.

The interior of the tower's lower floors were that of a fully-stocked business headquarters, with row after row of desks and cubicles. The place looked like it would be right at home having large numbers of busy ponies frantically rushing around as they each tried to finish their heavy workloads before their deadlines while middlemen screamed for them to work faster, knowing they'd all be out if a job if they were even a single second behind schedule.

The only difference was... It was completely devoid of ponies. The entire building was completely empty, apart from the Griffon secretary now with them, and its owner, who waited silently at the top of the building. A single sheet of paper blew across the room, a blank chart showing a pie chart with over three hundred illegibly small sections, though somepony with a temporary enchantment on their eyes could probably read it.

The newcomers walked in silence as their guide flew on, her wings sending gusts of air through the eerily silent building that echoed back, only serving to emphasise the incredible emptiness around them.

"Help us..." A disembodied voice whispered into Coffee's ear.

"What was that?!" Coffee demanded, looking around in fear.

"Nothing happened, /Pony/." The Griffon said without slowing down or stopping or even looking back, managing to fit more derisiveness and insulting power into that one ordinary species name than most could fit into far worse words.

"I heard somepony, I definitely did!" Coffee insisted, stopping and stomping a hoof onto the ground.

"No, you didn't. If you did, your overpaid foals here would be whining about it, too." The Griffon stated, leaving him behind without even caring about it.

He hurried to catch up, rushing up the next set of stairs, and the next, sensing an odd chill in specific parts of the room he walked through. Strange, but he put that down to faulty air conditioning, since he was almost at the third floor. When he reached it, he watched as Aquilla pressed the button, the elevator opening for her right away.

Even the elevator was cold, dark, silent, devoid of character or emotion. Instead of steam, the elevator was powered by magic, granting it the absolute silence that allowed the newcomers to hear any sound that could pierce the soul-crushing void, even their own heartbeats.

When they got to the top floor, the doors slid open.

They saw him.

They saw the only pony in the room that looked determined, intense and focused enough to keep his mind completely intact in a place so empty and cold. They saw his silver coat, his black top hat lined with a cobalt blue band atop a windswept orange mane with a lighter-orange star at the front more suited to a fast Pegasus, and they saw his custom-made dark suit that covered his body, titanium cufflinks upon his sleeves where other would have gold, a cobalt blue tie around his neck between the white undershirt and black suit, its tip hidden from view. But what unnerved them most... was his eyes. They saw his cold, merciless ice-blue eyes, eyes far colder and wiser than most ponies his age. He sat atop a throne-like white marble and steel chair far too large for him, the low mahogany writing desk in front of him not obstructing their view of him in the slightest. It would have been funny, to see the slightly-taller-than-average Unicorn sitting in the enormous chair clearly built for somepony almost Celestia-sized, if it wasn't for the air of mercilessness and intense seriousness around him. They were pretty sure that if any of them had any drinks with them, they would have frozen over. They saw the Unicorn, Silver Star.

Coffee Grounds quickly reached into a pocket of his suit and pulled out a bunch of graphs and charts that couldn't have possibly fit in there without the aid of magical storage runes in his pockets, placing them down easily due to how they gradually regained their mass and weight after they left the modified seals in his pockets, and he began droning on about how great their location was and how great his coffeehouse was and how vital it was that his business and everything it owned was sold today. Silver just stared wordlessly with unblinking eyes, only partially seeming to care.

Fifteen minutes later...

"So as you can see, Mr Star... may I call you Silver?" Coffee said nervously, his guards looking more tired than he was. They all looked nervous, sleepy, and more than a little creeped out.

"You may not." Silver said flatly, staring at the businessponies with his barely-interested, unblinking ice-blue eyes that seemed far too old, cold and wise for his young-adult age.

The three ponies looked deeper into his eyes, and were once again reminded that throughout the entire fifteen-minute meeting, he hadn't blinked once. They assumed he was using magic for that... or rather, hoped it was magic. Ponies that age should be out partying the night away, not working as Canterlot's sixth-youngest CEO and Businesspony to not only make it into the Financial Signs magazine, but to even get onto the 'Ponies Who Have Far More Money Than You' list.

They'd done their research, and knew about as much as anyone did about Silver: The Unicorn known as Silver Star had shown up one day in Canterlot with an unusually large sack of money guarded by needlessly-complex layers of protective charms he had cast that only he(and maybe the Princesses, if they had a few weeks to spend on it) could bypass. Aside from his creativity and magic skill (Which was impressive, but not quite good enough to get him into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, not that he was young enough to enter or that he'd really be helped much by entering), he seemed to have a much more useful ability, one related to the Cutie Mark he was rumoured to have due to often the symbol showed up on things he used: A pattern of ten orange stars linked by blue bands in the design of a a tree-shaped constellation.

He had an eye for connections, and he could accurately see everything connected to something, along with what influences it would have. He could solve puzzles that used connections or ciphers just by glancing at them, and easily calculate the force and trajectory needed to win just about any game of skill or the mind. Then, with his own intelligence, he could figure out what move was best for him, tipping over exactly the right domino to have everything he wanted fall right at his hooves. He'd occasionally state in a factual and non-boastful manner that he 'Knew everything', and when he was doing business, he certainly seemed to... though Coffee was pretty sure that it was just an act he used to intimidate others and build up his reputation, amd he had a ton of spys everywhere. After all, the rumours said he was great at summoning magic, though rumours about what houses he was aligned to and exactly what he could summon differed. After arriving in Canterlot, he began playing the stock market and other ponies for all they were worth, multiplying his funds almost daily. He bought out small businesses and moved his way up the chain, going from small corner-shops and independent restaurants to conquering larger companies and franchises with enough worth to interest him. He'd even take down lawbreaking or shady businessponies who sold faulty goods, artists and fashion-ponies who dared commit the unforgivable sin of plagarization, and even corrupt nobles who didn't deserve their riches and thought themselves untouchable. He'd make a game out of it, plant the seeds of ruin and set the dominoes of disaster falling, and at the end of it all, he'd pocket their funds as an unofficial reward to himself and leave them at the mercy of Celestia’s finest. Or the royal guard, if Celestia's finest were busy.

Yet tonight, these businessponies had booked a meeting with him, and paid the fee for booking a meeting with him, for they were trying to sell their failing Coffeehouse to him. They knew he wanted the place, or rather, the land upon which it stood. It was a good location: close to the Castle and the town's Library(As opposed to the castle library or Canterlot Archives, which was stuck inside the Castle and therefore off-limits to average ponies), so it would be visited by those studying at the local library, and most Royal Guards when they were off-duty, as well as anypony else in the general area. He'd just have to fire the current mediocre coffee-makers, and bring in some ponies who knew what they were doing. Silver seemed to have connections everywhere on a good day, and he knew a few drink-makers and coffee-brewers that wouldn't mind moving to Canterlot on short notice if he asked nicely and offered a somewhat sizeable bonus.

Yes, he could do great things with that location. He just had to get it from these mediocre businessponies at a price he was willing to pay. And these fools, who had squandered such a great location with mediocre and VASTLY overpriced coffee that drove away anypony who didn't somehow convince themselves that the generic 'Black fancy chairs in one corner, wooden tables on the whole left wall, walled-off food counter with workers behind it and an easily-changeable chalkboard for prices, orange lighting with black and brown highlights on the room's colour scheme' ambiance was worth the outrageous prices... These fools were not worthy of owning a business.

"Very well... Mr Star. We have finally come to an agreement on our price." Coffee Grounds said, trying to shake off the shivers continually running down his spine as Silver Star's icy gaze seared into his heart. He held out a hoof, pointing a white scrap of paper at the Unicorn, his hoof subtly shaking, trying to stop it by tensing the muscles of his limb.

A shimmering blue glow formed around the note and the silver Unicorn's horn, and he slowly levitated the scrap of paper closer to himself, drawing out the suspense. He read the number on the note. 2500 bits. He then stared at the note for a few more moments. "Interesting offer." He said coldly as the magic glow around the paper intensified for a moment. "Here is my counteroffer."

He levitated the paper back to them, and the three looked at it together. It now read, 25 bits.

"This... This is... You just removed the last two zeroes from the price!" Coffee shouted incredulously.

"Yes, this is the maximum price I am willing to pay." Silver Star stated. "I know of your business... if it can be called that... and your mediocre coffee. Everyone in Canterlot knows of your mediocre coffee. Your latest move, your attempt to sell the business and 'Jump ship', so to speak, may be the smartest thing you have done in a while. However..."

The temperature in the room lowered by a few more degrees.

"You have a recipe for disaster on your hands." He said ominously, causing them all to suddenly freeze up. He spoke with such certainty, such apathy, it was as if he'd already seen the events that would come to pass and barely thought them worthy to hear his knowledge. "You have the ingredients, your crops have been planted, and the mixture is baking. Your hourglass is slowly ticking down... and when you run out of time, when you reap what you have sown, are you prepared to bear witness to the vile fruits of your labour? Are you really willing to wait and watch as your business falls apart and drags you down with it, like a cursed anchor dragging you to the depths of the ocean? Or, will you take the smart route, and sell your business and its properties to me?"

"I want to sell, but twenty-fi-" Coffee began.

"That is the maximum price. Would you like to go lower?" Silver asked coldly.

The Pegasus guards took a step back despite themselves, though their employer stood firm. "25 bits?! l couldn't buy a decent meal in this town with 25 bits!"

"Very well... Would twenty bits cause you to feel less guilt over your own failures?"

"That's it, I'm out!" Coffee snapped, turning and leaving. The others followed, deciding they'd sell to someone else.

Silver Star turned up his cold aura, and spoke. They instantly froze up, not daring to move or look back. "It is time for you to choose: Will you rid yourself of the dead weight you call a business and gain 25 bits? Or will you cling onto that weight until it pulls you under?"

The oppressive cold air seemed to lift slightly, as he became disinterested once more. The ponies turned around, right on cue. "So... do we have a Deal?" He asked, his eyes flashing with a bright silver light during that final word.

"Deal!" Coffee and his guards suddenly cried out in unison. Then they came to their senses, but still agreed that selling was a good idea. After all, making twenty-five bits was better than nothing at all. Besides, the business was about to go under anyway. Better they sell it off now than deal with it going under. That way, it'd be his problem, not theirs.

Silver Star opened up another hidden drawer in his desk, near the first one, and got out a contract he'd already written up that morning. Everything was going exactly according to plan. He levitated his quill and contract to Coffee. "Here's the contract, and my quill. Just sign on the bottom line." The businesspony did so, and held them up to Silver. The silver Unicorn magically took the contract, placing it in his desk and sliding the hidden drawer back into the desk.

Silver Star gave a cold smile, the smile of a pony who was marginally pleased, but not quite enough to show. "Pleasure doing business with you."

"Likewise," Coffee said, taking it as his cue to leave before he got an even worse price. As he left the room and went back to the elevator, his guards following closely behind, large doors descended from the ceiling with the same constellation pattern as the building’s front doors, cutting off his office from the elevator.

Silver Star's horn glowed with a beautifully bright and full blue light (He did not know this, but Twilight's was both fuller and brighter) as he telekinetically levitated his heavy steel, marble and cobalt throne, rotated it 180 degrees so it faced the windows, and set it down with a loud thud that would have kicked up a few small dust clouds, if the immaculately clean room had any dust. He gazed out the window, thinking, a curious expression on his face. "Today, I've bought a well-located coffeehouse, at a price so low, it was even cheaper than my fancy suit." He frowned. "No, my higher-class suit. I am not one of them any more, I cannot allow myself to speak or think like them." He said, and sighed. Then, in a more uncertain tone, as if he was trying to convince himself, he said, "In any case... I can invest in and improve that coffeehouse, and make it into another one of my main moneymakers. This is... good. This is very good."

His mind started to wander as he stared out of the window, staring not at the ponies below him rushing about like panicked animals as they tried to get to where they had to be, not in the jobless fancy ponies who simply walked around because they could, not at the ponies working away in the buildings at jobs they either loved or hated, but at the horizon, and the sky, and everything far away, everything beyond even his sight. "I'm doing really, really well for myself." He added. "I am happy. I should feel happy."

"So why doesn't it feel that good any more?" He asked himself. "My parents would definitely be proud of who I've become, not that it really matters any more. I am myself, not one of them. I..."

Talking became too tiring to attempt as he remembered the day his life changed. He remembered the day he changed. It felt like it was only yesterday, and he could almost smell the scent of fresh grass and fresher apples returning to him.

"Silver Staaar!" A loud, angry voice barked as there was a loud bang on his door. Silver was wrenched painfully out of his memories and back into the present day. Everything he felt faded in an instant, and was left with only a mild cold anger that his thoughts were interrupted, even if those thoughts were uncharacteristically worthless and unrelated to anything worthwhile, like money, or power, or /money./

Waking up fully, Star recognized the voice and levitated his overly-large throne around, setting it down to face his desk and the door with another heavy thud.

And then, the world... became different. He could still see fine, but every so often, he'd see a flash of something else, something he suddenly remembered for a moment and then forgot. Disjointed flickers of the past, seconds he'd forgotten once and soon forgot once again.

“Those doors are enchanted to be unbreakable and impenetrable, you can’t just-” Silver began.

With a loud crash, a golden glowing lance of raw magical energy was driven through his door, followed by two others. That voice gave a loud yell of effort, and the doors shattered outwards, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Flash.

The magical barrier protecting the Silver Spire flickered down for the moment it took for a powerful shield-disruptive cloak to let in a yellow Earth Pony wearing the most hideously garish bright-lime-green hooded cloak imaginable over his head. He stamped his way into the Silver Spire with a furious expression on his face, throwing back the hood with a flick of his head and revealing his shock of white-grey hair. Sugar Cane.

"We're closed." Aquilla stated flatly.

He ignored the secretary, marching past her and ignoring her entirely.

Aquilla didn't like that.

Flash.

“That door cost more money than your armour.” Silver growled.

“Expenses.” The gradually-forming silhouette of a Unicorn in the dust cloud shrugged, indicating that he'd charge it to his expenses account. The one that never seemed to get empty. For him, wealth was not a number that you could always raise to be higher, but an abstract concept, mere numbers to toss around to have fun or get what you wanted.

The Unicorn stepped out of the dust, revealing that he was a large and muscular pale-yellow Unicorn with short leather-maroon hair and prideful sharp-green eyes, his large body clad in needlessly-thick tanklike 6mm-thick armour plating that covered his entire body save his head - which would also be covered when he wore his helmet, which he usually kept transfigured into a gold chain around his neck, hidden by his armour - and appeared to be made out of solid gold, despite how his every step had a metallic clank that an experienced metalworker would recognize as 'Steel alloy, with some other stuff in it'. His short tail was kept inside his armour, an unusual design choice for pony armour, which was usually a lot lighter and a lot more maneuverable than the colossal eyesore he wore. On his armoured flanks, he'd had his Cutie Mark painted over the metal: Two red lances crossed together in the shape of an X. His armour was made from a very expensive alchemically-synthesized gold-tungsten-titanium-liquefied-dragonscale alloy, and a few years ago, he'd commissioned Star to have it made for him... at a price. A price even higher than houses in Canterlot, a price the military-general pony was still paying off monthly with interest. Still, his armour had served him well all these years, and it still didn't even have the slightest dent or scratch, so he knew it was worth it. He'd often boasted that the scratchproof, soundproof, shockproof and fireproof material could even stand up to the full wrath of the sun itself if need be. Silver Star knew that while this was true, the less-protected parts like the helmet’s eyeholes and breathing-holes allow him to be burned to a crisp, though he'd regenerate. Silver idly wondered if the sun would burn the oxygen within his body, and if this would affect his screaming in any way, but Silver mentally pulled himself away from those thoughts. He was Neutral Good, not True Neutral.

"General Gold Standard." Silver Star said, a small and visibly false smile gracing his face. The pony in front of him was a former member of the Royal Guard, who furiously left after the position of Captain of the Guard was given to Shining Armour rather than himself, slamming the door shut, opening them again so they could be slammed shut, and continuing the aggressive slamming while glaring furiously at a confused Shining Armour. This continued until it was no longer funny, and the new Captain of the Royal Guard made some on-the-spot alterations to create a Gold Standard-Banishing spell that crafted a blue forcefield around him permeable to ponies that weren't Gold Standard. The forcefield then expanded outwards to the edges of Canterlot so hard that Gold was physically tossed through a thankfully-non-stained-glass window, and out of town, screaming in hatred all the while. Shining Armour, embarrassed, wondered if he overdid it, but the impressed applause from the Royal Guard in the room along with the many, many jokes about Shining making a great tosser put his mind at ease.

Gold and Shining had hardly gotten along before that, Shining was nice while Gold wasn't, Shining was liked while Gold wasn't, and most of all, Shining's win-loss record against him in sparring matches was almost exactly 75:25, with every match usually going the same way: Gold tries a magic floating lightning spear attack, Shining blocks it with his magic shields. Gold tries more spear attacks from different angles, and if Shining blocks them all and gets a chance to counter, Shining has won. Especially if he got the chance to form a circular shield around Gold's neck or horn, then he'd won and it was time for a rematch, and another, and another...

Rarely, Gold would try something new and unexpected, or he'd keep up the pressure and not get countered until eventually, he either literally passed out from Magic Exhaustion or actually broke one of his shields/got through a tiny gap in his shield formations.

The main problem was... even if they were equally powerful, an impressive 9.2 on the scale of power, Shining was actually pretty smart, and great at large-scale battlefield tactics... while Gold just didn't really have the mind for multi-fighter tactics. While gold saw weak points and threw spears at them, Shining could do a lot more, using his shields to break up enemy formations, isolate individual targets, cause fliers to crash into shield walls, redirect attacks not at the attacker but whichever foe he desired, and generally own the battlefield and decide when the tide turns in his favour and how hard. Gold wasn't a complete idiot, he could analyze an individual foe and his or her techniques, he was great at that, coming up with some alarmingly creative and sometimes even questionable plans and backup plans to defeat individual foes... but he could only analyze foes one at a time. He was more of a soldier or special-unit than a general or leader, not that the stubborn little mule would ever admit it. He wanted to be in power, he wanted to be in charge, and minor details like the fact that he wasn't good enough for the role wouldn't stop him.

After this humiliating event that wasn't actually half as humiliating as Gold typically made it out to be, he spent two years in the Equestrian Armed Forces, SpecialOps division, running missions across Equestria and taking out the mad spellcasters and horrific monsters that were at the level where a Special Forces group actually had a hope of winning, rather than simply being monster food or something to help stall for time while the heroes got ready to do their thing. When a hero wasn't on hand to deal with the crisis, and it wasn't at the level where only a very powerful group of friends could beat it, it was officially their problem. And this, Gold was VERY good at. Even if his mind became too focused and rigid upon fighting a shieldcaster, he simply nodded and ordered his squad to handle it while he threw small antimagic Cold Iron needles into enemy spells or monster hide.

After doing well and getting a few medals, he moved on to the regular military and quickly became a General, which he wasn't that good at, really. Regardless, He was Star's best Military Contact, and one of the closest things he currently had to a friend. "What is the legendary Lancer doing in my house?" Silver asked.

"This is your office." Gold Standard pointed out.

Flash.

"I'm here for revenge! He stole my farm! My family's been working that land for generations!" Sugar Cane shouted.

Keeping a talon on his throat, her other limb quickly unfastened and pulled away his cloak, seeing a long and fancy lightning-bolt shaped yellow knife in its holster, strapped to his chest with black cloth. She smirked, barely registering the Cutie Mark of three Sugar Lumps on his flank.

"Not very well." She laughed. "You're the sugar-farming buck, right? How did you even make it to Canterlot? And who gave you the literal cloak and dagger?"

"Those banks were about to foreclose and take it from me, and then he came right out of nowhere and he bought it from them for one bit! One! Single! Bit! As if everything we've worked on since the dawn of Equestria WAS ONLY WORTH A SINGLE STUPID COIN!" Cane roared, flecks of spit forming on his mouth.

Flash.

"It's also my home." Star insisted, and then he joked, "I hope you brought a search warrant."

"Yes, a... warrant for..." Gold trailed off, trying to think of a comeback. The best thing he could come up with was what he eventually decided to say aloud: "No, but I have a splurge warrant! ...Because splurge means 'to spend large amounts of money', and I spent a large amount of money on this armour..." He said, and then gave up, glancing at Silver with an expression that said, 'Cut me off and say something, already!'

Silver noticed this minor inner turmoil by looking at his facial microexpressions. A Cutie Mark in connections was good for a lot more than just business. "No." He said, smirking.

"Shut up and take my money." Gold grumbled.

Silver laughed quietly to himself, much to Gold's confusion.

"Are you laughing at me?" Gold asked dangerously.

Flash.

"You already lost everything." A deep voice boomed, silencing then both. They turned and saw Silver Star standing tall and proud, staring down at the pony beneath Aquilla like a judge condemning the worst kind of criminal. "You were about to lose your land, I bought it from you AND I paid off all your outstanding debts, out of the money in my own pocket. Your presence here is a violation of your contract. Do you WANT to keep your farm?"

"I want my farm back!" Cane snapped. "No contract, no lies, no evil Canterlot suits trying to steal my hard-earned money!"

"Hard-earned?" Silver asked, amused. "Your farm was so clumsily mismanaged, I'd be amazed that you didn't have your youngest handle the shift timetables. You had four ponies working the same section of land, casually talking to each other instead of working separate parts of the farm in a basic crop rotation for your possible separate shifts. You all worked from Mondays to Thursdays, taking Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays off... Even though the weekends are when most have the free time needed to visit the markets! You lack understanding of the basic logic and science behind farming, the books bought and added to your debt should help you with that, and if you're using the fertilizer company I recommended, crop yields should be increased far beyond what they are now. Earth Pony magic may be great for farming, and little else, but it can't do everything alone. And finally, you sold your food at an unfairly low price at the market, I raised them to comply with Canterlot standards. When you sell an item, you also sell the time it took to make the item, calculated by calculating how much money you'd make if you spent your time working for somepony else doing similar work while getting a fair price for it."

"Who will buy our food when you've put our prices that high?!" Cane demanded.

"PEOPLE DO NOT BUY THINGS!" Silver intoned, silencing the room. "THINGS ARE SOLD TO PEOPLE! If you cannot sell food to the hungry, you don't deserve to call yourself a Farmer!"

"Why you little-" He began, struggling furiously.

"Careful." Aquila said, the side of her claw pressing down on the pony's neck. "Don't make me throw you out."

Cane spat up at Aquilla, right in the face. Her pupils became slitted, but she did not let go or loosen her grip in the slightest. "I'd like-" The pony began furiously.

The spit on her feathered face began to evaporate, steam rising from her form as her body heat started to burn his flesh, causing him to scream. "-to see you try, the idiot shouts." Aquilla finished flatly.

Flash.

Silver smiled. "No, you'd just reminded me of something I'd read. It was hilarious, in context."

"Just trick me into giving you even more of my money." Gold grumbled. "It's what you usually do. Sometimes, I wonder if you're part-Dragon, hoarding all that gold."

"Honestly, that would explain a lot." Silver chuckled. "Eeexcept it wouldn't, since I clearly lack fangs, claws, wings, scales, or the ability to breathe magical Dragonfire without need of a spell. Oh, the myriad ways I could horribly abuse such a broken ability..."

"Hey. Cease fantasizing about how many ponies in your Games Workhorse club you can make cry, and tell me what you do with all that money."

"Hey, betting a thousand bits on everything on the board and laughing internally when ponies think I'm some magical super-fortunetelling demigod because one of the many businesses I bet on just HAPPENS to do well, usually due to the investment I just gave them... that takes a lot of money."

"So THAT'S how you do it!" Gold gasped.

Flash.

Utterly terrified and in massive amounts of pain, Sugar Cane nodded his head, and his body was filled with a bright green light that took away the pain, but not the fear. The bindings around his mouth loosened, allowing him to open his mouth just a little.

"I... I'm sorry-"

"Grovel." She ordered.

He threw himself at her talons and loudly and frantically apologized, begging for mercy, offering to work for longer hours and less pay as long as she didn't eat him.

"Even now, you seek to change the terms of our agreement?" Silver asked, causing him to freeze up in fear, realizing that he'd said the wrong thing again. "Give me your cloak, and begone from my sight."

He nodded his head, causing the cowbell sound again. He quickly ran out of the Silver Spire, getting through the shields because he was leaving with Silver's permission, and he ran all the way to the train station in Canterlot and didn't look back until he was on that train, sitting at a table, alone.

Flash.

"Of course it isn't, do you think I'd say it out loud if I was?" Silver asked in amusement, causing the big and physically-stallionly pony to pout like a small foal. "Anyhoof, how goes your search for the-" Silver began, hoping to get the conversation on track, and get it over with already. He wasn't entirely sure whether this pony was his friend or not. He'd never really had any good pony friends before, so he certainly wasn't a expert, but he was pretty sure he had to like the pony before he could consider it a friend or anything more than a contact or acquaintance.

"My search for a decent pie store in this town?!" Gold suddenly shouted out loud, facial muscles tensing up as he gave a large and fake smile. Silver could practically see a large blue sign pointing to it, saying 'Fake smile’, which was an apt metaphor, considering how his Connection Sight activated a moment later and analyzed the positioning of each facial muscle before showing him a large blue and orange neon light sign that informed him that it was a fake smile. "It’s not going well. It's really bugging me, you know what I'm saying?"

Silver Star got the hint, though the usage of the word 'Bugging' made it boringly obvious, and this time, his Connection Sight didn't even bother activating to point things out unnecessarily with a somewhat passive-agressive visual tone. His horn glowed blue as a a silver wave of anti-magic was fired from his horn, lighting up the room in a bright and brief flash of light.

A larger-than-average magic-enhanced cicada appeared on Gold Standard's shoulder, its previous magical invisibility failing. Gold looked at it, and frowned. "I can't destroy it without raising even more suspicion." He mumbled angrily, as if reminding himself.

"It'll recover in fifteen seconds, reawaken, and become invisible again. Gold... Why were you bugged?" Silver Star asked coldly.

"I think some ponies might be catching on to my plan. Don't worry, my old units have more loyalty to me than to the thrones, and we've got several good leads on the location of the Amulet. Things are finally looking up for me, and if anyone feels like getting in the way... They'll be crushed the way I could crush this bug."

Star forced a smile. His crazy- His stupid scheme might actually work.

How 'bout that.

/...Then again, it's unlikely he'll find the Amulet. And if he does, he won't be able to use it without damaging himself. His plan hinges upon one of us using it, and I don't plan on letting it anywhere near me. I have enough power, I don't want to lose my mind to get more. Buck, my mind is a big part of why I'm this powerful in the first place. As usual, it's best that I go along with his ridiculous pipe dream of his to remain his most trusted contact, rather than tearing it to shreds like I probably should. Besides, he pays well for the supplies I get for him. Who knew that letting some old fool dream a stupid dream would be so profitable? ...Every cliche evil businesspony villain ever. Plus one evil point to my alignment compass. I should go offer my contract to a poor pony and help them achieve their dreams some time this week, it should balance things out. I don't want to be evil, evil is dumb. They do stupid things for the sake of evilness, as opposed to the smart thing.

The cicada on Gold's shoulder slowly faded away, becoming invisible again as it reawakened. "...So then I say to her, 'No, eight Griffons'! Eight, all of them!" Gold blurted out, laughing loudly. "And after that, she flew off and I never heard from her again!" Silver Star had heard him tell this joke many times before, yet he still found even the memory of it to be rather amusing, so he forced a polite and light laugh.

Meanwhile, back in one of the Towers of Canterlot Castle, a young green-maned mauve trainee spy/analyst rolled his eyes as Gold Standard seemed to have told the infamously bad ‘Gold's Eight Griffons Joke' yet again, for the third time this week.

Gold stopped laughing, and sighed happily. "Speaking of mares... Because that is what we were talking about earlier... Do you have a marefriend yet?"

Flash.

Meanwhile, back at the Silver Spire... Only once Sugar Cane had left the building did Silver or Aquilla move.

Aquilla burst into laughter, and Silver facehoofed. "KahahahahaHAAaa... Did you see the LOOK on his FACE? He ACTUALLY thought... KAAAhahahahahaaa!"

"Ice cream?" Silver asked, raising an eyebrow.

"And he bought that! Ice cream, soul-magic stress balls, eating ponies alive even though they taste like crap raw, he actually bought every last bit of it! Speaking of bits, you got ripped oooooff!~♪"

"What?" He asked, curious.

"Him, his farm, his family and everything he has, it is SO not worth one bit. It should have been... a half-bit. Or a quarter-bit. Why don't you ponies have those?"

Silver shrugged and then smirked. "Food costs a little BIT of money, anything extra like fancy clothes or books costs more."

Aquilla laughed harder. "All this time, that was a bad pun?!"

"Eeeyup." He said.

Silver turned and left her there to her laughter, and once she realized that he wasn't laughing with her, she immediately stopped stood upright and did her best to stop laughing. "What's wrong?" She asked, trying to stop laughing.

"I was just thinking... about that look in his eyes. And the things he said." Silver admitted sadly.

"What, the part about you being eeeeeeheeheeeviiiiil just because you wore a suit and saved his flanks from the banks? ...Hey, that rhymes. Maybe I should add rapping and rap-battling to my resume." She said thoughtfully.

Silver smiled. "Why would you need a resume?" He asked.

"Good point." She said happily. "You're not going to fire me, I'm the awesomest Griffon in Equestria."

"You know, I could always replace you with some kind of magical creature not native to Equestria." He said thoughtfully.

Her smile faltered. "I'd rather you didn't do that." She said, a little quieter than earlier.

"Relax, you're fine." Silver sighed, feeling like he'd just kicked a puppy. Into a wall. Hard enough to break the wall, and the puppy. "I was just thinking... am I evil?"

"Do you eat foals?" She asked sarcastically. "Have you been locking them in barrels, throwing them in a blender, and drinking them by the mugful?"

"Aquilla." Silver warned. Sometimes, she was funny, and other times, she wasn't.

"Sorry." She said, genuinely sorry. "It's fun, saying stupid stuff like that. It's like I'm some comic book villain. And I don't actually mean that stuff, it's just Griffon humour. But if you want me to stop, I will."

Flash.

"No, not yet." Star shrugged.

"What? Dude, you're the only stallion I know who can actually make sense of a Mare's mind. How are you not being swarmed by them?" He said, stealing a brief glance at his armour-clad shoulder and the mostly-invisible blur that he knew was the annoying magical cicada. Once you were looking for it, it was noticeable. Those specially-bred magical creatures, Spycadas, weren't originally invisible.

"I've just... never found a mare like me." Silver shrugged.

"You mean a Unicorn? Just go to a Unicorn bar, this town has tons of them!" Gold yelled. "They have more Unicorn bars than they have big fancy pretentious overpriced coffeehouses!" He said, gancing back at his shoulder as he added, "This town is just infested with overpriced stuff!"

Star forced a smirk that he didn't quite feel. "And rich nobles stupid enough to buy them." He said, and stopped smirking. “But no, I don't mean another Unicorn. I mean, another... would 'Egghead' be the correct term?"

"Good luck finding another egghead as egg-headed as you!" Gold said, grinning. And then suddenly, he stopped grinning, and an idea came to him.

Gold started to speak. He said words, and Silver pretended that he was listening.

It wasn't that he wasn't able to hear, he'd just stopped paying attention.

Silver noted his mouth opening, and he said something. He sounded unsure. That wasn't good.

Gold said some more stuff, loudly yelling all kinds of horseapples. Silver could easily lip-read him if he wanted to - the loudmouth wasn't exactly subtle when he didn't need to be - he just couldn't summon up the energy to do so right now.

"Blah blah Shining Armour blah!" Gold said, his voice clearly understandable for a moment.

Silver felt his hoof touch his face, as he lightly shut his eyes, as if he was facehoofing. Hoof still there and eyes still closed, Silver said something else. It sounded like he was objecting to something. Great, Gold probably said something stupid. As he usually did, whenever the subject of Princess What'sherface's pet pony came up. The shieldcaster one. What was his name again? He knew that he remembered his name, he just didn't remember it right now.

Silver opened his mouth, and it felt like he'd just said something hilariously sarcastic.

"Well, it's true." Gold said firmly, the joke making a faint screaming sound as it flew over head and up, up, into the vast void of space. With nopony around to get it, the joke flew on through space, the coldness of the void causing him to shiver as he continued his lonely floating through the world between worlds, the vast and wonderful yet terrifying and large space between everything both comforting and horrifying him, the endless blackness around him at once a comforting hug and soul-crushing death grip.

Oh, Silver realized. Gold was still saying words. He gave a silent internal nod of respect to the joke, forever lost to not the sands of time but the void of space. Oh, untold and ununderstood joke, how his heart wept for thee...

The cold numbness that had claimed Silver's mind and heart receeded, allowing him to once again clearly understand what idiocy came out of Gold Standard's mouth.

"Now why in the name of Celestia's sweet flanks would anypony think that?!" Gold demanded.

Wait... he hadn't actually said the joke yet... that poor joke could return home and be loved once again!

Though the joke had a shred of his attention, Silver found himself to be too tired to even roll his eyes internally at Gold. If he had a bit for every time that pony mentioned how he believed he should have been Captain instead, Silver would be even richer. It was getting annoying... Time to put an end to it. "Or, maybe they prefer their Captain of the GUARD to be an averagely-powered Shield-Caster who GUARDs his friends with his life, rather than a ruthless powerful all-or-nothing All-in Blitzkrieger of a general who'd do whatever it takes to destroy the enemy, even if it meant risking a few of his own underlings to do so. You know, since GUARDS have to GUARD things, while GENERALS GENERALLY don't do that sort of thing." Star snarked bluntly, hoping it’d get through Gold’s thick skull. Normally, he’d play around with words and questions, keep his opponent mentally off-balance with feints and weakening wounds, until he lunged at the weakest point in their minds and had the whole thing come crashing down. But now? Now, he could barely summon up the strength to hurl a metaphorical metallic-blue lance at Gold’s head. Lifting up an orange warhammer and lazily letting it fall down upon the idiot would have to do.

"Now why the buck would anyone think that?!" Gold asked, outraged, as the metaphorical warhammer bounced off the tip of his muzzle comically. "A shield can eventually be smashed by a still-living opponent if they attack and live long enough to keep attacking, but I've never seen an Enemy get up and attack anyone after taking a Spear to the face! Anyone here remember The Siege of Canterlot?! We practically lost the town in under half an hour! I told them we should have done a raid on that Changeling Hive out in the sticks, I’ve been telling them that for years, but NOOOOOooo, thinking about that would mean actually thinking for once in their-"

Silver stopped paying attention, Gold's yelling seeming to lower in volume as his mind focused on his own thoughts. He knew there was no way he could change the military Unicorn's mind- Well, apart from using The Voice, and he preferred not to use it when he didn’t need to. Legally speaking, he wasn't supposed to use it at all, or at least not to force anypony to do something they didn't want to do. Still, Silver supposed it wasn't all bad, and it would be nice if the still-ranting Unicorn could see that. Missing out on that kinda-meaningless promotion in a pretty-much-meaningless job lead to Gold's new pipe-dream of usurping the throne, as if the short-sighted fool could ever run a country or even a town. More importantly, it led to his willingness to buy expensive things if he thought it'd help him achieve his goals. It was a very profitable business, helping ponies with their laughably unlikely pipe dreams for a price. After all, those dreams sometimes turned out to be true, and that could make him even more money. He idly wondered why so many businessponies were stereotyped as cold-hearted sadistic dream-crushing monsters when being evil rarely paid off, merely being pragmatic was much more practical and more importantly, rewarding, and it was so much more profitable to have a great pony who had fully realised their dreams with your help and now owed you a favour or fifteen.

Flash.

"...Nevermind." Silver sighed, facehoofing. "But not all villains eat foals."

"The ones in the stories worth reading do." Aquilla pointed out. "The villain is super evil, so no matter what the hero does, he or she is still in the right just for fighting him."

Silver sighed.

"Listen, Boss..." She began, and then softly added, "Master?"

"Silver." He stated.

"Silver..." She began, softer. "You saved that loser from the banks. Not that they're exactly Tartarites or anything, but still... You're good. If you hadn't stepped in, he'd lose his livelihood, his life's work and the life's work of his parents and ancestors, it'd all go to the banks, and he'd have to get some other job, like crappy manual labor or joining the army or becoming an adventurer or apprenticing to a Pony or Griffon who's good at stuff. And he'd fail at being an adventurer, and get eaten by a Grue or Giant Squid. But now, thanks to you, he actually has a chance to earn back his farm, and thanks to your help, it'll be better than ever. You did the right thing."

"And the money I asked for it in return?" Silver asked. "Both the single bit and the money I spent paying off bank debts. That debt will be hanging over their heads like a floating sword for generations to come, though at least I only gave it a ten percent monthly intrest rate."

"Hey, what's the point in being a hero if there's no rewards now and then?" Aquilla asked happily. "Besides all the Ice Cream Koan 'Being a hero is its own reward' stuff."

"Ice Cream Koan?" Silver asked, amused. "Ice Cream Koan refers to deep-sounding nonsense that has no real meaning, something like 'A flying walrus cannot sing well' or 'Only a rabbit who eats medium-sized carrots knows the truth of the world'."

"That's what it means here? Cool." She said, not caring much.

"Aquilla, I've long since figured out that's just something you say to avoid admitting when you're wrong." Silver said with a smug smirk.

"Back to the important thing," She said quickly, that being the other thing she said to avoid admitting when she was wrong, "Have you stopped being sad yet?"

"Aquilla..." Silver sighed wearily.

Flash.

"Plus, it's a small, friendly, close-knit town. Cheap housing because they're made of wood or some horseapples, low levels of tech and industry, tons of relatively uneducated ponies ready to be tricked, and something big or powerful attacks the town once a week or so. It's called Ponyville. Pon-evil, due to how the gates to Tartarus are literally in the town somewhere." Gold recited, remembering what he'd read in the town's file. Then, he grinned. "And best of all, mares outnumber the Stallions there almost 4 to 1!"

Silver noticed that this speech seemed unusually well-rehearsed, even if his conscious mind wasn't paying attention when the words were being said. He realized that Gold had been practicing this speech. "You've been-" He began to say.

"FOUR to ONE, Silver!" Gold declared, and then leaned forwards as he excitedly and overdramatically whispered, "Four to ooone!"

"And this is relevant because?" Silver asked.

Gold blinked a few times. He then summoned a golden spear with a jagged crimson-metal tip, and began to perform interpretive dance with it.

"No." Silver said flatly, horn glowing as he brought into being a small whirlwind of orange flames in the air and shattered the spell, flames dissipating instantly as controlled raw heat and force was blasted in a cone at Gold, no more painful than a sobering slap to the face, though at least it got the Unicorn to stop that infernal dancing. Why did he use the flame spell, rather than telekinetically throwing something? He didn't feel like throwing stuff, and considering how his alignment to the House of Birds made him better at using any spells the Family knew, and one of the Four Regents was the Phoenix King, fire spells were easy. Though not as easy as the ability to control metal and plants, an ability he gained by enchanting one of his ribs to give him that ability when he was in contact with it. But, Silver didn't want Gold Standard to know he had that power, so he went with flames.

"You can't deny the power of interpretive dance." Gold stated. "It's one of life's absolute constants, like the deliciousness of honey and the allure of cute mares. You need to go elsewhere, and make friends! Like to the town I mentioned, Ponyville! Otherwise, you'll end up as another of those evil losers you love to take down."

"I won't instantly become evil just because I don't have any other friends." Silver said flatly. "If that's how it worked, I would be spewing evil lasers all over Equestria while moaning about my unbearable loneliness and despair by now."

"That's how it starts!" Gold declared. "First, you tell yourself that just this one won't hurt. Then it's another, and another, and before you know it, you've bellyslid down the slippery slope and- Did you just imply we're friends?"

"Aren't we?" Silver shrugged, not seeing what was such a big deal about it. He didn't like the pony much, but he didn't hate him completely, so he supposed that meant they were friends. It wasn't like he had any better options. His old friends from the Canterlot Academy of Duelling and Battle STILL wouldn't talk to him.

"...Thanks." Gold said quietly.

Flash.

"I know, I know, pony emotions are deeper than Griffon emotions, it said so when I read books on ponies back home. That's why most of you are so weird."

"I wasn't going to say that." Silver pointed out.

"Thanks. Now, come on, sad pony, what's making you sad?" Aquilla asked.

"Well... I was thinking... I needed to take a vacation."

"Sweet! Let's go raid an Ancient Temple or conquer a small kingdom outside of Equestria, that's always fun." Aquilla said excitedly. "We already have, like, fourteen independent city-state kingdoms and empires ruled by us under different disguises, want to see if we can make it fifteen? Or maybe we could create some new breed of monster, have them conquer some place, and step in at the last second to rule over that?"

"No, I meant... from this. Being me, being the Soulless Suit. I think I should... I don't know, go to some small town, away from the plots and schemes and political games, and... make friends. That's what my therapist recommended."

"You have a therapist?" Aquilla asked, shocked.

"A secret one. And she's not a pony, she's one of the smarter birds I can summon." Silver said.

"Oh. That's ok. Anyway, she says you need to make friends and stuff. 'What, am I not enough for you?' Aquilla asked jokingly, pretending to be hurt, even though she knew a Griffon friend wasn't the same as a pony friend."

"Stop that." Silver ordered. "That stuff on feelings is just propaganda, it's the different cultures that make Griffons different from ponies and nothing more. They are not naturally colder, or spawned into existence by a bored Discord, or anything like that."

Aquilla raised her right taloned limb. "Would you like a game of Rock Paper Scissors?" She asked, smiling.

"Sure." Silver said, horn glowing. A small wooden sign appeared in front of him, a plank of wood held up by a thinner plank driven into a wooden block.

Aquilla laughed a little. "You were supposed to say 'Different cultures, and talons, and nothing more', and laugh. Because ponies don't have talons." Aquilla said, shaking her hand and getting ready to make her choice.

"Rock paper scissors!" They called out, and Silver spun his sign around to show the word Rock as Aquilla made the Scissors sign with two talons. She yelled in frustration, face meeting her palm, and Silver laughed, causing her to feel better.

"Anyway, you're going to go on a friend-making trip." Aquilla said happily. "Please tell me it'll let you unlock some kind of amazing all-powerful friendship-powered Second Form."

"I already have a second form." Silver pointed out.

"And what a lovely second form it is. Friendship Form, then. What would that look like, anyway?" She asked, starting to laugh. "You standing there with long locks of multicoloured hair billowing in the wind created by raw magic overload? Singing songs about friendship and love but mostly friendship so you can use Music Magic for extra power?"

"Maybe it'd have wings. Ten of them." He laughed.

"And ten tails. No, twelve! No, a thousand!" She laughed.

"Remember that time we fought a demon cat with a hundred tails?" He asked.

The room was filled with roaring laughter from him and squawking laugher from her. Their 'Fight' with that strange creature was just that funny. And pretty sad, but in the way that just made you laugh more. And in retrospect... well, the memory of that laughably pathetic creature and the disaster it tried to cause - and failed embarassingly at causing - would keep him amused for centuries to come. Sometimes, he felt that he could write entire books on what was wrong with that freak's head, but then he remembered that he could also sum it up in one sentence. She made Blood Banana look sane. The story about her... It was SO going into his biography.

Flash.

"If it means that much to you - and if you're willing to pay me - then I'll consider going to Ponyville. Maybe I'll stay for a week." Silver shrugged.

"A week?! Nopony can do anything epic in a week! I mean, tons can, but... whatever, a week isn't enough time. You need at least a month."

"Fine, I'll consider staying for approximately a month. But I reserve the right to return if I feel like it." Silver said, habitually slipping back into business-mode. "Which I'll probably do if this town is too slow or boring."

Hold on, why was he even considering this? This whole idea was stupid. It was built on stupid foundations out of beams made from raw stupidity, and it flew in the face of actual logic while suffering from one of the worst cases of wing priapism and horn crystalization in Equestrian history.

"You're not going to complain about having to put your business stuff on hold?" Gold asked, surprised. "And I thought you complained about Canterlot being too slow? And by 'they're slow', you really mean they're idiots, right?"

"As I once said: This town is a little slow, compared to other places I've seen, but Earth Pony towns are a lot slower. And I was referring to the town, not the townspeople. The towns are usually very slow-paced, with people lazily going through the motions of their daily routines, rarely doing anything to change things up or improve things."

"Don't worry... with all the monster attacks, and the legendary Everfree Forest being not too far away, something exciting happens at least once a week. Practically daily. Sometimes multiple times in one day." Gold said. And then, he smirked as he crooned, "And you know how much you like exciting stuff!"

“...No. Out.” Silver said, the awful attempt at swaying having ruined any chance of him saying yes. “Get out, you're boring me.”

Flash.

"Okay, fine. So, how do you go to Ponyville without arousing suspicion? Rich pony suddenly pops up in a smaller town, they'll assume he's here to buy it."

He smiled. "Memory game."

She faceclawed. "You can't be serious."

"Why not? Pick someone likely to talk to me, have them show up tomorrow and suggest I make friends, and go to the nearest town. I temporarily erase my memory of this conversation, so I'll think it was his idea, so I can blame any inital awkwardness on how this was never really my idea in the first place, and being determined to make up for it later is due to deciding that I actually do like that town."

"And this mess seems to make more sense to you than, I don't know, hitting the nearest bar and chatting up anything that moves?" Aquilla asked exasperatedly. She was okay with all forms of magic, despite how she was a Griffon and they thought magic was freaky and untrustworthy, but she hated memory magic. Not for any moral or spiritual reasons, no, it was just that things always got stupidly overcomplicated when memory magic was involved.

"Of course. First impressions are important, and if they go wrong, I'm screwed unless I can blame it on something else." He said, and rubbed his chin in thought. "Now, who would make a good pawn- Gold Standard. Definitely Gold Standard."

"I don't like him." Aquilla stated. "He's dumb, weird, obsessive, lame, and really, really dumb."

"Yeah." Silver shrugged.

Flash.

“Boring?!” Gold asked as he recoiled with rage, pretending to be offended, though the military pony knew this was Silver-code for ‘This conversation has ceased to be interesting, relevant, or amusing. There’s no reason for you to be here, so go away, I have important things I need to do'. Exactly how this was better than being called boring was unclear. “I am boring?!"

“Yes. Boring. You have overstayed your welcome. Now go, before I call my secretary and have her throw you out.”

"You don't have a secretary." Gold pointed out.

"The Griffoness in my lobby, what did you think she was?" Silver asked. "On second thoughts, don't answer, I don't need that mental image in my head right now. Just... go.”

“Fine!” Gold snapped, and broke character for a moment to give a conspiratorial wink before resuming his offended-ness, overdramatically making a rapid turn quick enough to make his short mane swing slightly, rapidly stalking out of the room like a lion about to pounce, albeit an incredibly loud metal-coated lion whose every hoofstep clanked audibly.

Silver was left alone with his thoughts once more, not that he minded. But this time, instead of just thinking back to his past, he decided to think on something that would actually help. He put all thoughts of a relationship out of his head- You had to be in a somewhat decent mental state before you had any hope of ever finding a good relationship, though the thought of finding someone to help you was a nice thought. But right now, he had more important things to think about.

Why was he feeling the way he felt?

Why had money seemed to lose its allure?

Why had the thrill of getting more money seemed so dulled?

Why was he feeling so down that he actually noticed it?

He was rich, he was famous (Somewhat. Ponies weren’t exactly lining up to kiss his hooves or anything, nor did he want them to do so, but he could get into just about any restaurant just by glancing indifferently at whoever was in charge of reservations, or in extreme cases, raising an eyebrow while maintaining the indifferent stare), he never had to worry about money or food, he lived in an awesome house, he’d worked hard, he'd had others work hard for him, and he'd earned everything he ever thought he’d wanted. He was once poor, he was once nothing, but he’d grown, he'd gained, and he'd gotten everything he ever thought he’d want.

He leaned forwards in his chair, sections rising up out of it to serve as armrests as he brought his hooves in front of them, resting them on the armrest and then having them arc up to form a large n-shaped structure, perfect for him to rest his head on while he thought. He was missing something.

He was missing something. Something obvious...

There was something he didn’t yet have...

Would getting more money help? No, he already had enough of that, though it was still somewhat fun to get more, and to exchange money for things that were more useful, such as tools and ponies in his debt. No, it was something else...

A small and faint voice left over in his head, one of the few scraps left from the pony he once was, suggested something. “Fam'ly?”

Why on earth would he need family? He left them behind, and had soared freely without them dragging him down with their inefficient and suboptimal traditionalist nonsense. No, he needed something else...

“Friendship?”

When did this become some badly-written filly’s book? When was friendship important to anypony for anything?! Besides those who wanted to use absurdly powerful magical artefacts that require you to have a certain number of true friends or embody certain attributes before they’ll work, of course. He still couldn't believe that a pony once went around town with a travelling show, scanning audience members for compatibility with an Element of Harmony. Normally, the balls would  glow at different levels depending on which elements you qualified for. Amusingly, when a lawyer attempted this, the balls representing Loyalty and Honesty started to rapidly strike him, bounce off, and strike again, forcing him to flee while those balls were replaced with an amused yell of "New balls, please!" from the crowd. For some reason, when the spell was aimed at Silver, the six floating beach balls that represented the six elements reacted strangely: Magic glowed brightly, Loyalty fell to the ground, utterly devoid of the magic it once held, Kindness and Generousity burst like a popped balloon, Laughter glowed, albeit a little less brightly than Magic, and Honesty deflated like an untied balloon. There was an awkward silence after that, followed up by the travelling pony getting out spare balls, giving him an Element of Magic beach ball, and motioning for the crowd to applaud as he left and the next pony came up.

He kept thinking, but after four whole seconds of intense thought, (Which was like 4 hours in Silver-time), he decided that since those two were the only possibilities, he might as well give them a try, and see what happens. With any luck, he’d solve his problems, stop feeling sad like some lame emo sadsack, and go back to the happy and awesome rich life he’d fought to get.

Friendship and Family were important now, for... some reason. Socialisation in general, really. He didn’t exactly get out much, as himself. Silver Star didn't have much to do, besides money stuff. So, he needed to get friendship, maybe befriend an old family member. He could go check up on his nearest family member, befriend them and anyone else likely to like him without him having to put in too much effort or mirror them too hard, be back before the night was up, and put all of this sad crap behind him. Hey, he had said he'd consider spending a month in Ponyville. He'd considered it. And he decided a month probably wasn't necessary.

This town was Canterlot, and the nearest Apple Family Farm was... Ponyville? There, they had Granny Smith, and... the other ones. He couldn't remember their names, which meant he’d never truly learned them in the first place. But to be fair, there were a lot of Apple Ponies, and he didn’t even know most of them, but the name of Granny Smith the Everlasting was legendary in the Apple Family. Still, if he was going to get this ‘Feeling’ nonsense over with as soon as possible, they were his best choice. He’d show up, make friends with his old relatives, consider revealing himself to them, possibly hug it out, and then he’d go home once he’d reassured himself that yes, his family still loved him, and he was the type of person who would be loved by his family, and so he could get back to work with their blessing. Because apparently, that actually mattered to some tiny part of him, a part that just wouldn’t go away.

He’d go, get it all over with, and be back before dinner.

This would just be a short trip.

Silver left his Business Room, the graphs Coffee Grounds had left behind vanishing and returning to his pocket in a flash of brown light, and Silver went upstairs using a secret staicase nearby, one enchanted to become invisible. To the main elevator, his Business Room was the top floor, because that was the highest he wanted anyone to go to. To maintain this illusion, the windows were enchanted to show a viewpoint higher than they actually rested at. There were actually several more floors atop his Steel Spire, and between his Business Room and the top-floor Penthouse that served as his bedroom, there was a different room.

At a first glance, the room would appear to be bigger on the inside, because it was. It was an art gallery with 3-d art, miniature vehicles such as magnificent airships and enormous boats on display, all reduced to the size of carts.

Then one would notice that the vehicles were very precise and accurate to the real thing, almost as if they were the real thing, shrunken down by magic. Mainly because they were.

He walked straight towards his favourite ship, one that would be both fast and inconspicuous. Well, more inconspicuous than the giant silver, orange, blue and jet-black airship with fifty cannons a side, thin layers of titansteel covering the balloon section. He went past magnificent vehicles worthy of a Princess or even a King, and walked straight towards a normal-sized grey rowboat made from buoyant metal, an oar on either side. He walked up to it, hopped up onto it, and faced the boat’s front.

His horn began to glow with a steel-blue light, and then the glow spread out to cover his whole body and the rowboat beneath him, radiating like a faint blue sun. His boat started to levitate, slowly, like a hot air balloon gradually taking off. His boat rose up, and once it had gotten about five feet off the ground, he and the boat disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Silver Star reappeared outside of the Silver Spire, a confident smile upon his face, as he rose higher and soared far above the heads of the Unicorns and occasional Earth Pony and Pegasus beneath him. On the ground down below, and in buildings, people stopped what they were doing to to look up, or out of their windows, and see the Unicorn in his rowboat, and the expression on his face that confidently shouted out to all who saw it, Yes, I am flying a metal rowboat... and I look good.

Once Silver Star was far above the Canterlot skyline, he immediately poured on the speed, suddenly flying faster than any Pegasus he'd ever met. (He could even keep up with Rainbow Dash at this rate. Until she used the Sonic Rainboom, at which point, she'd easily leave him and his rowboat in the dust. But he hadn't met Rainbow Dash yet, and did not know this).

Silver Star loved flying, but not as much as he loved magic and money. Still, there was something about looking down on the non-flying creatures beneath you that was just so... 'fun'? Yes, he supposed it was fun, but that wasn’t quite the main thing... Was it the exhilarating feeling of wind in his face? No... It was freedom. The absolute freedom that came with flying, to know that you could fly anywhere, go anywhere, do whatever you wanted. Silver Star did not know the spell for self-levitation, though he had no problem with using ordinary levitation to pick himself up, but he found it took less effort when riding a flying object instead of levitating himself. And he'd never settle for anything less than the best in any other areas of life, so why should he start now? Besides, he liked his rowboat. It was cool. And a good way to get in object-flying practice, for if he’d ever need to fly his best battleships.

And as he flew the boat to Ponyville, he breathed in, and was about to start singing when his boat suddenly halted in the air. In the air in front of him, a wide stage appeared, a stage upon which three ponies in black suits appeared. On the left, a tall pale-red Unicorn with a spiky pale-grey mane whose sleek and slim body would probably look far more attractive if he were a mare. In the middle, a very attractive brown Unicorn mare with brown eyes as hard and unyielding as frozen earth. And on the right, a very large royal-blue rounded-headed Earth Pony that looked vaguely Manehattanite-ish.

"Harangue, Soliloquy, Fillibuster, what are you doing here?" Silver asked, wondering why the best three of the lawyers in the country, the three he practically owned, were suddenly showing up in person. There was a reason why every client they represented turned out to be genuinely innocent and every criminal they prosecuted were either genuinely evil or they found the true culprit during the course of the case. And that giant monster attacks usually got the absolute worst criminals on their way to prison, seemingly eaten alive when they were actually teleported to another dimension.

Fillibuster, the Earth pony, began. "Bom bom bommm..."

"That song you were about to siiiing..." Harangue sang.

"Bom bom bommm..."

"Was copyrighted property, so now we'll sing!" Harangue sang, stepping back so Soliloquy could take center stage.

"About something that's never been sang about before..." Soliloquy sang.

"Bom bom bommm..."

"Like how my toast is almost always scorched!" She sang, closing her eyes and shaking her head for emphasis.

The two began to sing in harmony while Fillibuster lowly sung a generic rising four-note eight-beat baseline. "The song you were about to sing is copyrighted, so we'll sing this instead! We're singing lawyers, musical advisors-"

Harangue, alone, called out, "And I wish I was dead!"

Harangue and Fillibuster began to sing in harmony, while Soliloquy took over the rhythm. "We've sold our souls and dignities, so justice may truly reign! But please, oh please, for the love of all, never make us sing again!"

A violin section came out of nowhere, and the three sang together, "We're singing lawyers, who tell you now, you can't sing what you want! Other lawyers, not us, of course, each one is a caaaaaaaaaad and sycophant!"

"Copyright infringement is very bad, so please heed our last woo-oooo-ords...

Trying to sing like this re-ya-ly huuuu-uuuu-uuurts..."

"Our pride and dignity... And respectability! We are the singing lawyeeeers... " The three sang, and then musically declared, "NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN!"

Harangue teleported the three and their floating stage away, and Silver blinked.

"...What?" He wondered.

Rainbow Dash bucked the final puffy white cloud floating above Ponyville, and zoomed back down to the grassy grove where Pinkie Pie was waiting for her with a stopwatch in her hoof. "How fast was that?" Rainbow Dash asked her pink friend, who stopped her stopwatch so quickly her hoof was momentarily a blur.

Pinkie Pie excitedly looked at her stopwatch, and then a wide grin spread across her face. "Less than ten seconds flat!" she said, overjoyed. "Only seven seconds!"

“Alright!” Rainbow cheered.

And then her cheer suddenly went away as she noticed something up in the air, something flying towards Ponyville very quickly. "Uh... Pinkie?"

"Yes, Dashie?" Pinkie said cheerfully, hoping Dash had stopped smiling because she’d just remembered there was something fun and awesome she’d forgotten to do with her, but there was still time left for them to do it.

"What's that behind you?" Rainbow Dash asked, pointing straight ahead with her hoof. Pinkie Pie looked behind her, and saw a grey Unicorn riding on a metal rowboat that glowed with a bright flame-blue light.

"It looks like... A grey Unicorn, on a flying rowboat!" Pinkie said cheerfully. "I've never seen him around here before." She said, and gasped. “Maybe he wants to be our friend!" And then she gasped harder. “Maybe he wants a party! Go say hi to him, Dashie!"

Meanwhile, in the sky, Silver Star's ears twitched as he sensed somepony calling him grey. Years of dealing with that had given him a near-supernatural and utterly-useless sense for that one particular thing. He wasn't grey, he was silver, dang it! Also, looking at Ponyville, he noticed a completely out-of-place crystal castle thing around all the nice, normal, thematically-fitting cottage houses. He’d have to be blind to not miss it, considering how the thing was a giant eyesore. Then again, he lived in a giant silver tower he’d built himself in a town filled with buildings made from marble, ivory, gold and stone, so what right did he have to tell strange ponies to get better taste in interior and exterior decorating? ...That right, really, since his Steel Spire was awesome, while this crystal temple just looked weird. Like someone had found a nice diorama of a city, and slapped down a big pink gem where their megaprincess megacastle would stand. He was reminded of what's-her-name, from Duel Academy. She sucked.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings hard and zoomed up to the slowly-floating Unicorn on a boat, leaving a prismatic vapour trail in the air behind her. Ever since Twilight became an Alicorn Princess, new arrivals were uncommon, but not rare.

Star was pondering what else he could do in Ponyville while he was here, pretending not to notice the flapping sound of a Pegasus flying towards him, when a sky-blue Pegasus suddenly appeared in front of him, hovering and keeping the same short distance between them as they both flew forwards. He slowed down his boat, and she slowed down to match it. Silver got the sense that she was toying with him just a little, and any attempt to outfly or outmanouver her would fail but still be fun. Her speed was likely impressive, if her beautifully lithe and toned aerodynamic body and pure /magnificence/ of her beautiful wings was anything to go by. Her prismatic mane was odd, but kinda cute, if it was natural. If it was dyed, then it was weird, and so was she. Not that there was anything wrong with three of the five possible reasons one would have for doing such a thing. "Hey, are you new in town?" The Pegasus casually asked him.

"Yes, I’m here to visit somepony. My name... is Silver Star." Silver told the flying Pegasus in a calm, slightly-proud, and seemingly well-practiced manner.

Rainbow Dash had the weirdest sense of deja vu. There was something eerily familiar about the tone, inflection, emotion, and everything else about the way that Unicorn said his name. It sounded like Twilight's weird no-accent-at-all correct-pronunciation-but-not-overbearingly-fancy accent. "Hey, are you from Canterlot?" Rainbow Dash asked.

“Eeeyes.” Silver admitted. “Are you from here?”

"No, I’m from Cloudsdale, but I moved here a while ago.” She admitted. She then puffed out her chest and pointed her hoof at her chest in a cool-looking way, showing off her awesome and lithe body, and she likely would have puffed up her wings - or whatever that was called - if she wasn't already flying. "You are talking to the one, the only, the awesome... Rainbow Dash!"

His eyes widened in surprise. "Hey, I've heard about you!" He said, realizing who she was. The information was already there, he just wasn't really paying attention. "You saved Equestria a bunch of times, right?"

"Yeah, but my friends helped." Rainbow said. It was always nice to meet a new fan.

Ask a dumb question to stall, and then go. "Is it true the Elements of Harmony exploded and from the ashes, your new Rainbow Power forms arose?" Silver asked.

"Uh... no. There were a bunch of rainbow keys, and a big tree, and it was awesome." Rainbow said.

"That actually does sound a lot cooler. Anyhoof..." Silver said, wondering if it was worth taking additional steps to avoid the risk of blowing his cover. "I should probably find a landmark first. Where is Sweet Apple Acres?"

"Over there." Rainbow Dash said, pointing a hoof. Some of her haters - Not that she cared she had them. Besides, Fluttershy and AJ had way more, maybe because they didn't seem like the type to be heroes that saved the planet. A town, maybe, but not all of Equestria. And they all had way, way, way more fans than haters, and most of their haters were really just the crazier fans of a different Element-Bearer, so who cared? - may have doubted she'd know what a landmark was, but pretty much every flier at least sort of understood the concept. "It's the huge orchard with a ton of apple trees, on the opposite side of town to the Castle, you can't miss it."

"Thanks." Silver said absentmindedly as he turned his ship around, and began slowly floating straight towards the cas-

Castle?!

Silver's rowboat halted in the air with the audible screech of metal grinding against more metal. "Did you just say castle? Why is there a castle in this town?!" Silver asked calmly, a little confused.

"Because Princess Twilight needs a place to stay, duh." Rainbow said with a roll of her eyes.

Silver's pupils and irises shrunk to the size of pinpricks for a brief moment.

Did she just say-

...No.

No.

She-

...No.

WhatIsSheTalkingAbout? Castle? WhoCouldLiveInAPlaceSoThermallyUninsulated? IsThatReallyMyFirstThoughtUponLearningThatThere'sAPrincessInTheSameTownAsMyFamilyMember? WhatDoesThisMeanForMyPlan? WhatplanthereisnoplanIamwingingitsohardPegasiblushfuriouslyinmypresence!

Newly acquired information is causing processing problems, information is also seemingly unreliable and from a single source. Possibility that she may be speaking of a different Twilight remains. Possibly that she may be lying remains. Possibility that she may be messing with me to see how I react remains. Possibility that I need to use my Ultimate Newspaper to keep me informed of current events more often, rather than simply searching for cool stuff to do... also remains. Disregard temporarily, until more data is found.

His eyes returned to normal. "Well, thanks." He said, and he quickly landed his rowboat on the ground and trotted off. As if as an afterthought, he cast a near-permanent steel-blue magical shield over his boat. His horn stopped glowing, but it lit up once again as he activated the illusion that obscured his horn's glow and caused it to appear non-glowing for a few hours, and trotted over to Sweet Apple Acres.

Rainbow Dash suddenly landed right next to him, taking him completely by surprise. She'd fallen straight down without flapping, so he wouldn't be able to hear him coming, flaring her wings out at the last moment to put a lot of strain on her wings and a lot less on her hooves. And since he wasn't really paying attention, he hadn't noticed the sound of displaced air approaching, either. Hmm... This Pegasus was certainly smarter than she appeared. Or, he was just an idiot for not paying enough attention and not realising that he'd just ended a conversation without actually ending it or making the other party end it, and so it was likely that she would follow him. Or both, probably mostly the former. "So, who’re you visiting?”

“That’s classified.” He said.

“Classified? Do you work for Princess Celestia?” She asked.

“From a certain point of view.” He said with an auditory shrug. He did not shrug physically, he did not need to, the fact that he was shrugging on the inside could be heard in his voice.

Deciding that this line of inquiry wouldn’t get her anywhere, she moved on. “So, what are you doing after you talk to this pony?”

He was planning on going back home, but he supposed that would look rather suspicious, a random pony flying into town for the few hours it would take to talk to a possible family member. Just for the sake of not giving anything away, a habit that years of business had taught him, he first said, “Who said it was a pony? Though it is probably a pony. Anyway, after that, I will... read books." Silver stated. "I will read some books.” And once he realised how awkward that sentence sounded once it was outside of his head, forever removing a few of his cool points in her eyes, he decided to try and change the subject. "What books do you like?"

"I like Daring Do, and... that's all." Rainbow admitted. “For now. But Twilight did send me some 'Y-A' stories a while back, saying I'd like them. I'll read them when I run out of Daring Do books.” She said, pronouncing it Why-Ay rather than Whyay. Rainbow Dash gained a cool point in Silver's eyes.

Daring Do... Those books are for young readers. YA stands for Young Adult. This Pegasus appears to be around my age, possibly a few months older- Not that I really look that young, with my suit and hat and everything. ...Come on, I can work with this. Silver thought. "I like those books, too." Silver said with a flirtatious smile he'd copied straight from a bad romantic comic book. A romantic comic book that was badly written, not a romantic comic book about an awful or unhealthy or otherwise bad romantic engagement. Lame crap like that just wouldn't sell. "My favourite character is Daring Do. I admire her personality, her quick mind, and her awesomeness."

"Me too!" Rainbow Dash shouted happily, glad she’d found a fellow Daring Do fan. "The next Daring Do book is coming out in a few months, and it's gonna be so! Awesome! And I'm gonna camp outside one of the bookstores in Canterlot, to make sure I get it first!"

Silver could almost hear the loud and overdramatic voice announcing their new friendship by yelling, 'FRIENDSHIP'. "That sounds like a good idea." Silver said, and smiled. "Perhaps I could come with you? If I remember correctly, I believe I have a costume that makes myself resemble one of the characters... who was it, again? Ahuizotl?”

“That’s a costume I’d like to see.” She said, wondering how that would look on him. Strangely, he managed to look pretty cool in it.

The thought bubble with him in it popped suddenly as Rainbow Dash noticed something.

"Hey, wait a second... Where's Pinkie Pie?"