Just write. You sit down at a desk, purposely away from the other fillies and colts in your classroom. Your teacher, Ms. Cheerilee, is giving a lecture on the history of the cutie mark. You find this subject to be quite dull. As she is talking, she gives you and your classmates the assignment to write a paper on what you think your cutie mark means. There's only a couple students in the class who don't have their cutie marks, so they write a paper on what they wish they'd get for a cutie mark and why. You start wondering if that's the easier assignment. You look to your side, noticing that your cutie mark is a puffy white cloud.
Finally, pencil hits paper. You stare at the paper, keeping a hoof on the upper left corner of the paper. Somehow, this makes you think that your writing cannot be seen; a feeling like you are invincible when it comes to others reading your work as you write or even worse, critiquing it.
You think you're terrible at starting any paper. It's just not your thing. You like describing things, but when it comes to starting any sort of writing assignment, you think you do pretty poorly. Your mind starts to drift off, remembering all the things you have to get done. It's been a busy week for you despite it only being the third day into the school week. Late nights spent working on arts and craft projects that you neglected and put off to the last second have encompassed your time, forcing you to stay up until one or sometimes even two in the morning trying to build things like your popsicle stick representation of your hero, the illustrious Silver Mask, a stallion Unicorn who found a secret spell to control the bodies of others, but locked away the power soon before his death. Being a white Unicorn yourself, you found that type of magic to be awe-inspiring and admirable. He used his power for good and you loved that feeling of responsibility in power. You found the control of power for good purposes to be a unique trait that you only wish you could have.
Your pencil falls out of your hoof, landing sideways on the paper. Your head stays leaned on your desk as you let out a careful yawn. Your vision becomes hazy as you notice you suddenly have three hooves where there should only be one regular white hoof. Suddenly, your eyes shut heavily, weighing you down and exploiting your tired minds distress. You know you should open them, but you can't help it.
A moment later, your eyes open. You're laying on a bench outside town. You have no idea how you got there or why. You sit up, stretching and rubbing your eyes. You feel the heat beating down on you gently with a cool breeze brushing past your blue mane. Turning around, you realize that you're not near Ponyville. The town behind you is that of an old kingdom. There are city patrolman walking through it. You feel a strong sense of adventure and natural curiosity as you can't help but venture forward, arriving at the town. You're greeted with a series of bows, although you're not sure why. As you walk through the praved streets, you hear ponies refer to you as "Silver Mask" which catches you by surprise. You stop, trying to figure out what's going on. What if you are Silver Mask? You look at your hooves, noticing that you're taller than before. No longer a colt. You move your head behind your body and notice a flowing blue cape that matches your mane.
Who are these ponies? Where are you? Why are they calling you "Silver Mask" when that is not who you are? You continue walking along the path until you come up to a building. The guards in front of the big steel door open it slowly, releasing a hatch on the door. As it opens, light fills the room to what is a pool of purple liquid. You cautiously walk towards it and place a hoof in it. It feels cool to the touch. You start wondering if it would be better to walk inside and see what would happen. Part of you starts to think it may kill you. The other part is too curious. You take a step inside, trying to survey how deep it is. Upon doing so, you realize it's deep enough for you to swim in. You jump inside, a splash resounding around the highly restricted room. You feel a surge of magic flow inside your body as your body starts to lightly give off a sparkling effect.
You didn't have a chance to enjoy the pool any longer. A cry for help sounded along the kingdom and ponies were running in fear. Jumping out of the pool, the sparkling effect around your body leaves you, remaining in the pool. However, you still feel a sense of power surging through you. As you step outside, you see the guards rushing towards a giant purple bear known as an Ursa Major. Stars are painted all along it's seemingly transparent body. It was larger than any building you have ever seen before.
Civilians ran and cowered into their buildings. You watched as little fillies and colts ran behind you, seeking protection. Your guards are swiped away by the bears great paws as it creeps closer to the kingdom. An alarm is sounded via a large horn at the top of a guard tower. The guards outside were signaling you to rush in. You ran up to one of the guard towers to get a better look at the approaching threat. On top of the Ursa Major, you notice a Unicorn using magic to hypnotize the Ursa Major under his control.
You focus greatly, taking a deep breath and feeling energy surrounding you. In a surge of adrenaline, you aim your horn at the Unicorn, releasing a pulse of purple energy towards him. He notices it at the last second and jumps out of the way, landing on the ground next to the Ursa Major but still controlling it. Suddenly, the Ursa Major began charging. This was the rush you were looking for. It was time to assume that responsibility with power to defend your kingdom.
You jump down from the guard post, landing in front of the kingdom gate. You are all that stands between the Ursa Major and his Unicorn controller. The Unicorn remains a few steps behind the Ursa Major, charging at a slower pace. You use the energy once more to surge towards the Ursa Major, striking it in the face. Much to your surprise, you see that this does nothing and the Ursa Major acted like it never happened. He's closer to the gates now. You turn around, your cape following as you retreat further in to prepare yourself.
The Unicorn slows down his pace, taking small steps towards the kingdom gate as the Ursa Major swipes at the guard post, smashing it. He squeezes through the gate, ripping it apart. You refuse to let this vile creature harm any of what you assumed to be your subjects. You remember reading about how Silver Mask could control the movements of others. You want to use this to your advantage as you attempt to utilize it on the Ursa Major. As he goes to swing at a building, you stop him. This is short lived as the Unicorn increases his hypnosis on the bear. The bear swipes at the building, causing the roof to collapse in. A surge of terror trickles down your spine as you begin to sweat. This isn't what Silver Mask would allow.
The purple bear starts walking slowly towards you. What you do now will decide the fate of this battle. You look back to see the door still open to that pool. Nodding, you turn your body and rush towards it, feeling desperate. You jump into the pool, hoping and praying that something mystical happens. The Ursa Major sticks his snout in the door of the building, roaring and causing some of the purple liquid to flow out of the pool. From inside, you try to absorb the energy given to you, readying your horn as it glows. You feel more energy sweeping through you as your horn glows brighter. The Ursa Major takes a step back, threatened by the brightness of your horn.
Just before thinking you were safe, the Unicorn takes a step inside, his dark shadow looming over you. Your body tingles as you feel goosebumps across your body. You focus your energy and aim it at the Unicorn. For a moment, he almost seems to cower at it, raising his front hoof and keeping it almost limp as if he was headed to run away. This isn't the way you wanted it. With a heavy breath, you close your eyes momentarily and cease the magic spell, the brightness of your horn slowly fading.
You open your eyes slowly, looking in a glare at the Unicorn who then smiles, using his horn to send a quick jolt of lightning into the pool. It sends a deep electrical surge through your body that causes you to become stunned, groaning in constant pain as the electricity continues to flow. Your kingdom is being destroyed and there's nothing you can do about it. This thought causes a tear to flow as all you can imagine is what the Ursa Major is doing outside. These thoughts somehow give you strength, calming your body and relaxing your muscles. You work up enough strength to jump out of the pool and into a puddle of the purple liquid.
Using a quick spell against the Unicorn, your horn activates a reflecting shield that was brought up just as the Unicorn aimed his electricity amplified horn at you. This electricity bounces off the shield and hits against him, paralyzing him as it did to you. The electricity leaves him unable to control his actions like you had, leaving him unable to stop the electric bolts shooting from his horn. You keep the shield up, partly in self defense and partly in spite of this evil stallion. Eventually, he falls to the ground. He isn't dead but merely unable to conjur up anymore magic due to exhaustion. You ran towards him, removing your shield spell and jumping over his body to the Ursa Major. The hypnotic control on him has been removed due to the Unicorn's collapsed state. You focus your magic energy one more time to control his body, focusing greatly. As you do, you can almost feel life through the Ursa Major's body. Every large bone and every muscle was now under your direct control. Doing this, however, left you unable to control your own body.
You move the Ursa Major's paws, forcing him to walk outside the kingdom. Every step the Ursa Major took took a lot of energy for you to make him do. It took a few minutes before you lead him into a cave on the far outskirts of town where he was then put into a hybernation state that you forced upon him while controlling him. Finally, your horns power dimmed, and you regained control of your body. After a deep breath and a smile that was accompanied by drips of sweat, you feel an electric surge through your body as you fall to the ground, exhausted from controlling the large beast. You turn around slowly, your body twitching as you struggle to move. Behind you is the Unicorn, taking long deep breaths and glaring angrily at you, his hair messy as his scowl meets your look of desperation. His horn glows as he sends another jolt at you. This time, you're completely helpless and unable to leave.
You fall to the ground, your heart pounding as you wonder if this is your final moment. When you look up, you see the Unicorn just a step in front of you as he looks down at you, still breathing heavily. He kicks you and then charges his horn. You utilize that moment to muster all the strength you have left to trip him. As he falls, he quickly goes to stand up, blasting at you with enough force of energy that you go flying through the air.
For some reason or another, this gives you the adrenaline you needed. You flip through the air in a tempestuous state, unsure of what will happen. As you land on your hooves near the gate as the Unicorn remains at the door of the pool of purple liquid, you take a deep breath that relaxes your muscles once more. You use the energy you can muster within you to absorb into your horn, charging it. On the other side of town, the Unicorn does the same, his horn glowing slowly.
Time feels like it slows down at this moment for you. You feel the energy of everything around you as you close your eyes to focus your energy. You can feel the civilians that are cowering in their houses in fear as well as the civilians who are poking their heads out the window to see what will occur. You can feel the Unicorn and his sturdy but almost reckless stance as he musters a great power throughout his body all focused up to his horn. You are in touch with your inner self and natural spirit.
Your eyes open quickly to reveal nothing but pure white as your hair slowly raises as an effect by the amount of power you now have stored within your horn. Aiming your horn carefully, you and the Unicorn release all of the powerful magic you have stored away at the same time, the beams of purple and red flowing towards each other as the two energies collide, forcing you to fight through the force of the other beam. The Unicorn takes a step closer, his hoof firm against the ground, but his stance still reckless. You do the same. Both of you walk closer to the center of where the beams collide, increasing the amount of force residing within your magic beams.
You take another step. And another. You keep yourself sturdy, remembering the feel of being an Ursa Major. To be unyielding and relentless, but also in complete control of your actions. In this moment, you dub the stance of spreading your hooves apart from each other as you take slow steps forward the "Stance of the Ursa Major" for how alike the beast it is. You get closer to the Unicorn. He continues forward as well.
Sweat continues to pour from you as you feel like you can no longer hold your own against the force of the Unicorn's beam. At the same time, you can feel his fading. You and the Unicorn become close to the center of the colliding beams, both beams becoming weaker as both of your energies fade. You hold your own long enough for his beam to slowly dissipate, but he becomes relentless still, holding his position as you still march forward.
The force of the beam is too much for him to now handle. He lets out a loud yell as he is overwhelmed with magical force. The power becomes so much that the Unicorn's horn breaks at the tip, causing the Unicorn to fall unconscious. Your horn dims, stopping your magic as you stare at the defeated attacker. You notice his breathing continues but he is no longer able to conjur any magic and with a broken horn, he will never be able to again. You stare at him, making sure he has no tricks left. Moments later, you control his body, making sure he is indeed too weak to move. Your suspicions are correct in that he is knocked out cold. With a nod, you pick him up onto your back and dump him into a prison cell, locking the door behind you. It takes a while, but eventually the guards regain their consciousness before the Unicorn does and they return to rebuilding the destroyed parts of the kingdom while keeping the Unicorn under heavy surveillance.
You hear a slam out of nowhere. Like the sound of a thin wooden plank slapping something. This sound originates from nowhere, but you feel your sense on this world fading. Everything turns hazy as you blink. When you open your eyes, you find yourself back in a classroom that has reached the end of its teaching period. Ms. Cheerilee is standing in front of you after slapping a ruler in front of your face. You look up, drool slipping down your face as you look up at Cheerilee. She gives you an irritated stare that suggests you've disappointed her. At this point, you've realized the entire thing was a dream. You look around, not wanting to believe you're back at first. You smile widely at Ms. Cheerilee and notice the other students in the classroom getting up to leave and walk out the door. After thanking Ms. Cheerilee for waking you up, you rush out the classroom, ready for whatever is to come next.