In the dining chamber of the alicorn sisters, just past dawn, Princesses Celestia and Luna ate their respective breakfasts and suppers. Neither was very lively on this particular morning, but that was often the case at the end of one’s day and the beginning of the other’s. But all the same, food was the last thing on their minds.

“Has there been any progress in changing his mind?” Celestia asked, prodding a stack of pancakes with a disinterested look. “Silver needs to study under her assigned mentor until she’s ready to integrate with Equestrian society, not swept off on a protective whim.”

Removing her crown, Luna swirled her wine glass. “Nay, dear sister,” she replied. “Shining Armor has been quite firm in his decision.” Sipping her wine, she looked to her sister. “You could order him to end this charade; she’s not ready for this.”

Celestia nodded, but frowned. “I certainly could, but it would be counterproductive at this point.” With a huff, she pushed the pancakes away. “He’s yet to assign his successor and finalize his full transfer to the Crystal Empire under Cadance. That means that acting against him now would be doubly harmful. It would discredit him in the eyes of those serving under him, and would sour the overall opinion of his replacement.”

Their eyes flicked to the pairs of personal guards at the door. The stoic demeanor of the guards didn’t waver in the slightest, but both princesses knew well enough that their discussion had rattled them. Rarely did they ever pay such close attention to mealtime discussions between the princesses.

With a tilt of her head, Celestia looked back to her sister. “I’m not about to abuse my power over this, regardless of what I’d like,” she said with poise and dignity that befit her station. “The laws are clear in many senses, and he does have claim over her by blood. At this point, we can only hope that he makes the right choices.”

It caught the elder sister by surprise when the younger shook her head. “Nay. We… I stand by what I said. Silver Penance isn’t ready to be in the guard.” She tipped back her wine glass and drained it, a sour look on her face. “I don’t think she ever will be. She may be doing better than when I helped her preserve what was left of her mind, but in some ways she’s worse off.”

This brought an arch to Celestia’s eyebrow. It had been some time since Luna had spoken so freely of the mental state of another. She’d not done so of her own volition since before her banishment.

“Every night since she met with her parents, she’s had nightmares I cannot soothe,” she said bitterly. “Each night, they get worse, and they always end the same. I fear the call of darkness in her.”

~ 3 ~

If there’s one thing I’m starting to hate, it’s that fucking bat pony, Evening Script. Dunno what her beef with me is, because Strongwind insists he’s never seen her like that before. She’s absolutely relentless, though. Even when she keeps her distance, I can feel her eyes on me. Perhaps I’d best watch my back for daggers.

At least she’ll have to work to get at my back now. Three days ago, Sergeant Revelry told me he had something special in mind for me. Sure as shit, after chow, he took me down to the armory and had one of the armorers enchant a red set of copper training plate mail, complete with galea, with a scaling and lightening enchantment. It doesn’t have the same uniformity enchantment as the stuff the legitimate guards wear, but it does use my mane color for the crest, which gives it a silver-blue stripe pattern. Almost makes up for looking like a red-shirt.

I’m definitely glad that he had me working out with my movements restricted before, but the armor’s still somewhat difficult to move in; it’s so restrictive! If not for how grateful I am to have armor—and it is a godsend in sparring—I’d have asked for something a bit lighter, like a gambeson and mail. Eh, I’ll take what I get.

Still don’t know how to feel about the tower shield and the sword he assigned me to train with. I mean, the sword is as long as a full grown stallion. Even with the scaling enchantment on the shield, it’s strange wielding a weapon more than twice as long as I am. Honestly, I don’t know if he’s fucking with me, or seeing how far he can push me until I push back.

Jokes on him; I’m up for the challenge. Though a bit cumbersome, the sword isn’t too heavy to wield at the same time as the shield, and it does give me a bit of extra reach. Good magical exercise, too! I’ll probably have to work hard to get all the forms he’s drilling me in down.

That’s why I’m to have my first spar against Evening Script today. It’ll be nice to maybe work out some of the aggression she has toward me, but even if she doesn’t at least learn to tolerate me, I’d like just the chance to wipe that smug look off her face.

I mean, I never even get to see her training during weapon drills. Whereas I can see Strongwind and Stonefeather train with wingblades, and watch the graceful spear dance of Specks, I never even see her! Where’s she get off being so critical of me when she seems like a big slacker?

But here she stands across from me in the practice field, just smirking at me. Unlike the others, she’s outfitted in armor more befitting the night—a dark metal with the same draconic look Luna’s personal guards wore when they accompanied her to Ponyville. Perhaps it’s the difference between day and night, so to say.

“So, FNG, you wanna find out why you ain’t ready to be a guard?” she jeers, fanning her wings out with a look of pride.

I shrug, rolling my neck in my armor, and then draw my oversized sword. Looking to Sergeant Revelry, I ask, “So how’s this work, Sarge? Do we just go at it until one of us can’t continue?”

The stallion smiles. “You fight for three rounds, regardless of wins or losses. Getting downed ends a round. Your sword will be magically blunted for sparring.” Without even looking at the blade in front of me, he discharges a spell into it. Looking to Eve, he adds, “This is a practice fight, Eve. Remember that. I better not find you have any unfriendly toys on you.”

Despite him being her superior officer, she rolls her eyes. Still, I watch her hand off a bandoleer of something to him. “Yah, I got it. Non-lethal. I’m not a ‘tard, Sarge.”

That’s yet to be seen, I think to myself.

On “Go!”, Evening shoots into the air, flitting about wildly. Despite wearing plate, she flies like it’s no hindrance at all. Or an insect to be swatted out of the sky.

Though I try my best to keep her in my sight, she’s content to keep me off balance. Still, she’s a bat pony and unarmed. That means she probably specializes in hoof-to-hoof. That means as long as I don’t go anywhere, she’s gotta come to me.

Instead of trying to dizzy myself trying to track her with my eyes, I brace myself and levitate the shield off my back before closing my eyes. Whereas my eyes are slow, I can get a good grasp of her position by passively reaching out to feel the magic around me.

Sure enough, she’s like a bright flare in the darkness, but there’s something not right. Eve’s kinda… spotty around her armor, and then one of those spots kinda just flies off at me.

I’m too perplexed by what I perceive to bring my shield to bear in time. My eyes snap open in time just to see a strange sheet of paper wrap around my horn. As it begins to smoke, I panic, and then…

“Lessons one and two, FNG!” Eve declares a few minutes later as the ringing in my ears dies down. I still have to blink a couple of times before I can actually make out her face as she stands above my prone form. “Just because a pony appears unarmed, do not assume they are harmless; they could have hidden weapons. Similarly, do not dismiss the idea of magic because a pony is not a unicorn.”

With a shake of my head, I struggle back up onto uneasy legs. “Th’ hell’d’ya even hit me with?” I slur, still a bit off kilter from whatever spell she somehow discharged into my horn.

See, that’s the thing about unicorns. If you so much as tap their horn while they’re channeling one spell, you can usually stop them cold. When they’re channeling multiple levitation spells in addition to magic sense like I was? A migraine is not off the table. Stun spell to the horn? Yeah, you’re gonna be out for a few.

While Evening Script isn’t as forthcoming about her attack, Strongwind is more than happy to fill in the blank. “Spell tags,” he says from the sidelines, suppressing a chuckle. “It’s not unlike enchantment, in that a spell matrix is written on a sheet of adhesive spell paper. Eve loves them. Gives a fair chance against unicorns.”

That explains the mark of a burning sheet of paper with runic markings.

Eve smirks at me, but she places a steadying hoof on my withers. “The difference between a spell tag and an enchantment is that the spell and adhesive on the tag only become active once it has mana channeled into it by any user. Depending how much mana is dumped in, the fuse is either longer or slower.”

Her smirk falters as she leads me back into the training ring. “Ready to get yer arse whooped again, kid?”

In spite of the absolute shitkicking she put me through, I find myself smiling back at her. The explanation of the spell tags was definitely an abridged one, but it’s something I wanna learn more about. If nothing else, I’m thankful because she gave me an interesting topic to study.

“I think we might have to have another go, just to see if we can make the lesson stick.”

~ 3 ~

From the far side of the field, Twilight watched her student square off against the bat pony. She was impressed at the ease with which Penny had taken to wielding both the longsword and shield. From personal experience, she knew that much of the equipment the guard used was by no means light, but she wielded the blade as she might a quill. A humorous sight, to be sure, but still impressive progress in such short time.

It was an active force of will not to charge out into the field when she saw Penny go down in just one blow in her first round. She had to remind herself that the small mare had likely not expected such an attack. Even reigning in her instincts—the sergeant her brother had entrusted her student to surely knew what he was doing—she could not help but wince when the stun spell dropped her.

Thankfully, the second round lasted much longer. Silver Penance was a lot more cautious of Evening Script. Instead of staying in one place, the small mare darted about, keeping the shield between herself and the bat pony as much as possible, and parrying any stray spell tags with the sword.

Twilight almost thought her pupil had somehow hashed out a makeshift bidirectional anchoring spell in order to free up her focus. It would explain why the shield rarely ever left an opening. But no sooner did the thought cross her mind than she noticed that there was a definitive pattern.

The shield would occasionally lag behind or dip low. It’d even dart ahead from time to time. Is she taunting her partner? After a few moments more, she cast it aside. She’s anticipating Evening’s movement, but she’s overcompensating. It’s probably an active fight for her to maneuver the shield and the sword and focus on both the bat pony and incoming projectiles all at once.

Soon enough, Evening Script released a fusillade of spell tags. Silver intercepted the most immediate dangers with the shield, and when that was blown free of her grasp, she neatly bisected any that would land near with her blade. While all of this was going on, Eve had shot straight up in the air above her and was barreling down on the red-armored pony.

With a crash, a blue-gray hoof drove Silver’s helmet into the ground. The sergeant called out an end to the round, and had one of the nearby pegasi bring out the smelling salts.

Again Twilight fought the desire to rush out and help the pseudo-foal. Her restraint was rewarded when Penny awoke not with confusion, but a smile—no, a grin—on her face. She was enjoying herself.

At the same time, though, she thought that even from this distance, she could see a glint in her eye. It was a look that brought her back to a month or so ago. The sight of Silver in Lyra’s prone body, struggling to stay in the fight… the look of defiance and victory as she announced the trump card that could easily kill her. That same look was in her eyes as she returned to the starting position, and it scared Twilight.

In spite of this fear, she was intrigued. Silver ‘Penny’ Penance had clearly thought of something, but what?

Reaching out with her magic, she watched Silver intently. Again, she was impressed by the dual telekinesis spells being utilized, but she quickly pushed that aside to look at the third formless spell being cast.

It wasn’t a true spell per se, but closer to personal magic. All unicorns inherently had an affinity for telekinesis, but there were certain feats that an individual unicorn was able to achieve without a layering a proper spell matrix. Some had an affinity for teleportation, while others might be inclined towards transmutation. Personal magic was the result of these individual feats.

Based on what Silver was preparing now and the event leading up to her cutie mark, Twilight deduced that Silver’s personal magic was that she could easily guide her mana into something, as though water seeping into a crack, and manipulate it. It was inelegant, as some personal magic often was, but the effect was no less potent when properly used.

Even before Sergeant Revelry announced the start of the final bout, Silver had filled the air around Eve with her mana; it was absolutely saturated. On the word “Go,” even before the bat pony had time to respond, Silver released the shield and sword. At the same moment, the invisible cloud of mana surged into couple of spell tags still concealed among the bat pony’s personage.

If not for a quick protection charm from Twilight, the ensuing chain of explosions might have brought serious harm to Evening Script. When all was said and done, the bat pony got off easy. She might have a concussion when she woke up, but that was far better than being torn apart by a several overcharged spell tags.

A shriek echoed through the courtyard when Eve struck the ground. The sound came not from the fallen soldier, but from the little fool that had felled her. Even as the other squad members rushed over with a stretcher and first aid kit, Silver was at her side, crying and shaking the larger pony.

“Please don’t be dead! Please don’t be dead!” the pint-sized pony pleaded loud enough to be heard from Twilight’s position. “I didn’t mean it.”

~ 3 ~

“She gonna be alright, Sarge?” Strongwind asked, watching Silver rock back and forth on her assigned bunk. Since the accident, the foal sized mare hadn’t left that spot. She just sat there, cradling Evening’s dented and scorched helmet while she whimpered quietly to herself.

Revelry shook his head. “Couldn’t say,” he answered. Pulling his helmet free, he ran a hoof through his short mane. “Been working with her for weeks, but I’ve never seen her like this. Kinda makes me wonder how much of an adult she really is.”

That made the pegasus tilt his head slightly. He had younger siblings, and while this behavior was similar to how his little sister had behaved when the family cat had to be put to sleep, he couldn’t quite say this was the same. It wasn’t sadness he saw in Silver’s hollow eyes; it was fear.

He too removed his helmet and shook free his bronze mane. The white of his uniform enchantment faded from his coat, revealing charcoal fur. “I don’t think it’s like that, Sarge,” he said with a frown. “Think about her psych profile. We knew she wasn’t the most stable pony when we took her on. She’s in shock and probably convinced she just killed sompony.”

Over the whimpering, they could just make out a single phrase being muttered over and over again. “I’m a bad pony and now everypony knows it.”

Again, Strongwind was struck not by the feeling of sorrow from the little pony, but fear. It hit him, then, what she was so afraid of. Her parents had abandoned her after her transformation, and she could never return to what had been her home for so long.

Though she tried to fit in, she wasn’t properly equipped to do so. She didn’t have all the knowledge she needed, and she didn’t have much social support. Ponies could try to help her all they wanted, but until she could accept that she wasn’t going to be abandoned, she probably wouldn’t get better.

In a lot of ways, she was just a scared little filly. Maybe that’s why Captain Shining Armor sent her here. In his own way, he wanted to share with her the camaraderie of the guard. Shining Armor knew that Eta Squad was like a family, and in spite of their flaws—or perhaps because of them—she’d fit in with the ragtag band of misfits.

“And Eve?” Strong asked after watching the piteous scene for a few minutes more. “She up yet?”

The sergeant shook his head. “Probably be out most the day,” he said, never breaking his gaze from Silver. “Pity her when Eve wakes up though. Vindictive witch, that one.”

The back of Strong’s neck bristled at the thought of Evening laying into the traumatized mare, but he knew the bat pony better than that. She might be a bit miffed, but she wasn’t a bully. She never went into it with anypony she didn’t think could handle it.

Removing his armor and placing it onto his bunk, Strong made his way over to where Silver continued to rock. “Tell anypony about this, Sarge,” he warned with a smile, “and I’ll tell the mess where those kegs of hard cider really went.”

~ 3 ~

I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting here in my stupor.

That moment just keeps replaying in my mind. The feeling of self-righteous fulfillment as I’m convinced I’m about to get one in on Evening Script. The look of terror in the mare’s eyes as I pump her spell tags full of my mana. The sense of Twilight’s magic intervening and wreathing Eve to protect her from the explosions. The realization that I might’ve done something wrong… The sight of the chain reaction and the bat pony dropping unmoving to the ground… It all just loops in my mind’s eye time and time again.

“I’m a bad pony, and now everypony knows it,” I murmur, clutching the mare’s helmet to my chest like a teddy bear. Twilight was there… she saw what I did. She knows just how much of a monster I am now. If the sergeant doesn’t turn me in, she’ll definitely...”

The change of pressure on my mattress jerks me out of my self-loathing trance. “Mind if I talk to you?”

I look to my right, and finch. I’ve been so wrapped up in my… whatever you want to call it that I’d completely lost track of my surroundings. Seated on the edge of my bed is the pegasus corporal, Strongwind. So that’s how it goes. They send the pony who looks like he could bend steel beams to arrest the dangerous psychotic midget…

Yet, when I look to his eyes, I see not judgment or wrath. It’s sympathy. But if he’s sympathetic, then maybe he really does wanna talk.

“I guess not...”

With a nod, he slides himself onto the bed completely and stretches out beside me. The body language is lost on me, but it somehow makes me feel… less vulnerable.

“She’ll be fine, Silver’ a bit sore, but fine.” His smile shows no trace of deception, which puts me a bit at ease. “That was quite the way to end the sparring match,” he says, his emerald eyes meeting mine. In spite of the gravity of it all, he laughs—can you imagine?

“We always warned her not to carry so many of the darn things on her. There’s being prepared, and then there’s being stupid.” With a shake of his head, he adds, “That bandolier she hoofed over to the sergeant earlier? Those were her lethal spell tags, so all of that was just her non-lethal stuff going off.”

I perk up slightly at his comment. “She goes around strapped to the nines with those often?” I ask in a shaky voice. “She’s practically a suicide bomber if anypony knew to look for those tags!”

He nods, and a wistful look replaces his smile. “I didn’t know you had it in you, but I’m glad you managed to drop a protection charm on her at the last moment, though,” he says in a soft voice that freezes my blood. “She means a lot to me.”

“That wasn’t me,” I croak after a minute’s silence. “I didn’t even know they’d all go off like that. Fuck, if not for Twilight...”

My whimpers turn to outright sobs as it finally sets in that I almost killed somepony again. Worse, I did it out of petty desire to one-up somepony. I’m being too careless! Too rash! Even when I’m not trying to hurt anypony, it’s all I seem to do.

A nauseous feeling fills my belly as I push away Evening’s helmet.

“I just want to help ponies, Strong,” I say in a weak voice. It almost comes off as an octave too high because of all my whining. “But no matter what I seem to do, I’m hurting somepony. How can I ever be accepted if these things keep happening?”

Much to my surprise, he wraps a wing around me and pulls me close. Even as I continue to pathetically sob into my bedding, he begins to hum. “Ma always told us that some ponies are like hedgehogs. They try and try and try to make friends, but because of their spines—their differences from the others—they always hurt ponies. Other ponies avoid them because they don’t want to get hurt, and they avoid others because they have no idea how show their safe, soft side.

“I never understood how something like that could be until I met you, Silver.” Maybe it’s the warmth of his voice or the warmth of his coat, but I find myself leaning into him. “You’re different, but you’re trying your darnedest to fit in and be a good pony. In the way, you’re putting together a jigsaw puzzle, but everypony has forgotten that you’ve lost some of the most important pieces.”

My eyelids get heavy with every word he speaks, but I cling to consciousness. “All ponies crave affection, even subconsciously,” he says, and for a quick moment, I feel something brush at my mane. “They can try to be strong, or forget to pace themselves, diving headlong into their work, but sometimes, they just need a friend more than anything else.”

~ 3 ~

From the door to Eta Squad’s barrack room, Eve smirked at what she saw: Corporal Strongwind, thrice awarded the Medal of Bravery, cuddling a pony who may as well have been a foal. It was kind of adorable to see how fatherly the stallion could be. If Silver had looked just a bit older, she might have felt jealous of how the little tyke was getting affection from her special somepony, but as she was, it somehow looked… right.

“Well ain’t that a precious sight,” she said in a syrupy voice. “Wish I had a camera.”

Strong’s ears perked up, but he didn’t immediately look her way. Instead, he brushed Silver’s mane out of her face with one feather and got off the bed. “Glad you’re okay, Eve,” he said softly. “You feeling alright?”

With a quiet trill that only a bat pony could manage, Eve made her way across the room and looked down at her would be killer. “Y-yeah,” she said, her voice hitching slightly. “Better than I would have if not for the guardian angel watching over her shoulder.”

Her smirk became a soft smile as she used her wings to gently shift Silver up to the head of her bunk. Though her act of tucking in the small mare startled Strongwind somewhat, but once he realized she wasn’t about to smother Silver with a pillow, he too smiled.

“I wanna be mad at her, y’know?” she said, turning to look at him. For the first time, he noticed that a number of capillaries in her right eye had blown out. “Without even tryin’ or meanin’ to, she nearly killed me, and if she’d been any other hornhead off the street, I’d’a been splattered all over the trainin’ field or whatever terrace I happened to be over.”

Strong nodded walking toward the door. “I assume that means you’re going to finally stop carrying so many darn spell tags into training and on patrol?” he asked, his voice rich with tease.

She stops to think for a bit before shrugging. “I suppose I can just start carrying what I need with me,” she replied with a genuine laugh. Retrieving her helmet, she followed behind him. “Less explosive ones, for sure.”

Tilting his head back toward the filly-sized mare passed out on the bed. “And her?”

Again, Eve shrugged at Strong before giving him a wink. “I’ll make my peace with her later.”

Author's Note

Few things worth noting.
First, I realize that this isn’t Thursday. I’ve decided Saturdays are a better day to post updates than Thursdays.

Second, Luna refers to dreams like the one in the previous chapter. She sees how haunted Silver is by everything that has happened since becoming a pony, but can do nothing to help [a subplot touched on in the next chapter, as well]. We’re starting to see the first effects of Silver’s lack of friendships/relationships [Twilight being an obligate mentor, and Spike being too young for Silver].

Third, we get the first problem regarding how easily Silver’s picking up magic. She’s picking up magics relevant to her talent with ease, but in lacking the twenty-some years experience using it, she doesn’t have a perfect understanding of how it all works, or how things could react. It could be subconscious, but P for Plenty comes into play. Things can only get worse as she grows in strength.

Finally, those of you who’ve followed the previous Silver Script stories probably remember that they were told, for the most part, entirely from her perspective. The exception from that norm is the cancelled ‘Alchemist and the Mirror’. It switched perspectives at time to make storytelling somewhat easier. For those who aren’t aware, a good tip for scene-writing is that if you’re stuck, a change of perspective can make for a good change of pace. In the case of this story, you’ll occasionally get some perspective shifts where a perspective from someone other than Penny is beneficial, or as a form of foreshadowing. The next chapter will legitimately be released on the Saturday to follow.