Silence in Equestria

The Sector II: Episode XX

Dear! Sweetheart! Darling!

Twilight slowly opened her eyes as the first sunbeams hit her eyelids. She didn't wake up as usual, though, she rather seemed tired as she wanted to get back to sleep. She refused the sweet dreams, knowing she couldn't sleep back anyway, instead she got out from her bed, brushed her beautiful but all messy mane and with the help of a little water she woke up completely. One last yawn and she decided to get to work.

"(Okay, the letter for the princess first.)" she though, but knowing Spike was still asleep the unicorn grabbed the quill, the parchment, the inkpot, the extra inkpot and the extra-extra inkpot herself and carefully organized them on her writing table with a help of a ruler. The unicorn got the quill and began her letter as usual.

"Dear Princess Celestia..." she wrote while speaking loudly in herself. However, this time it sounded a bit.... different. Twilight stopped right there, despite she knew what to write. The little, almost non-existent difference irked her eyes so much, and she didn't know why, making her cross the entire line and trash the whole paper.

"(I, uh, let's see what the other's are up to first.)" she wondered, but her stomach didn't like the plan.

"(No, breakfast first.)" she changed and headed to the kitchen.

Bread, cabbage, tomato in a delicious sandwich, Twilight could barely resist it, she already licked her soft lips when knocks on the door cut in the middle of the sweet moment. Her stomach growled once again, but she resisted it anyway. Opening the door, the early guest turned out to be Rarity, with a quite desperate and hopeless situation.

"Twilight, have you seen Opalescence recently?" she asked.

"Sorry Rarity, I just woke up." the purple one replied.

"Oh, why? Why? Where could have she go?" cried out loud the white pony being overdramatic and making a scene as usual.

"If you happen to find her, immediately bring her to me, if you don't mind. Also, Good Morning!" she asked after suddenly ending her solo.

"Will do, and Good Morning to you too."

"Thank you, darling."

Twilight smiled back as Rarity took her leave, but that last word.... it was so frustrating to hear, although Rarity often says that. Yet this time it was different, or at least it seemed different. A second later the possible answer for the obvious question of "Why?" has just passed by the library, waving with her hand and a shooting her love filled look at the unicorn. It was Silence of course, along with Trixie going to their usual work at the rock farm.

But is it possible? May the continuous cheesy nicknames of the pegasus be the cause of this problem? It was a not the time of questions, but the time for breakfast now, Twilight ran back to her precious sandwich, which mysteriously disappeared on the table. Who was it? Who could make such a crime against her belly like that? Even before the question could run through one's mind the answer accidentally revealed itself in the form of hick-ups.

"Spike!" she shouted madly. Growling at the dragon along with her stomach. Spike knew what he committed and quickly ran to make another sandwich for Twilight, that the unicorn gobbled up without any hesitation. However as she realized she can't do anything about the question that irritated her mind so much, she had nothing to do but wait, sit idly, which she hated with burning passion. The letter however was waiting for it's completion and Twilight ran to finish what she begun.

Meanwhile on the rock farm, Trixie and Silence were discussing as free chit-chatting was not only allowed, but essential to make the time pass. Today's topic was a bit less of an everyday topic, they were talking about Trixie leaving the farm, which Inkie didn't take very well, yet understood.

"Yes, I understand, Trixie. It could be much better to do what you're already good at." sighed up the gray mare. Inkie didn't know what to do next, she was wondering what would happen if Silence would leave as well. She couldn't handle everything alone. It was truly a hard situation for her, that's sure.

"Oh, is that true, Vinyl almost left for Tartarus?" changed Inkie the topic, to avoid further heartaches.

"Tartarus?" asked back Silence in confusion as she finished rolling a boulder.

"You don't know about Tartarus? You really aren't into myths and stuff, are you Silence?" asked Trixie.

"Tartarus is the place where the equines go after they.... pass out from this world." explained Inkie. "It's gates are sacred and heavily guarded by the Cerberus, so the evil spirits can't get out to destroy Equestria." she added.

"It's a different dimension." Trixie continued "The dimension of the decayed." she added as she'd tell some horror story around a campfire.

This made Silence think, not that hard but after the possibly simplest reply she didn't even speak anymore during work time but was lost in her own thoughts. If Tartarus is a different dimension, the powers making Celestia be able to spot the outburst of the black magic may not reach there. It would be a perfect place to practice and extend her capabilities of black magic, making her become much stronger and be able to hold her evolved alicorn form for much much longer. However, if the creatures there have the power to destroy Equestria as a whole, it might not worth the risk. But the next milestone was set, she felt like she must take this risk. So she began to think about how she could take Cerberus out of the way first. This took quite a lot of her and time suddenly began to pass much faster than usual, but after a while she decided to look for some spell in the library.

The way there she met Fluttershy and Rarity, still looking for the missing cat.

"Hello there! Silence have you seen Opal today?" Rarity asked.

"Opal?" the pegasus asked back.

"Small, white cat with a ribbon in her hair." she explained.

"No, sorry." shrugged Silence.

"Oh dear, I wonder what happened to her." worried Fluttershy.

"I'll make sure to let you know if I find anything about her, but for now I need to take a little rest."

"Of course."

Silence hurried back to the library to gather information. She knew it's not recommended to fight against the unknown. Twilight didn't seem to be at home, when she arrived however. There were no time to waste, knowing the place like her own hoof Silence quickly found the books she needed, books about Tartarus.

Tartarus is the final place of life, where the spirits recieve their bless or punishment depending on their life they lived. According to the book she read, there is no difference between spirits in Tartarus. However an other book said Tartarus equals hell, where the evil spirits are banished after their life ends. A third one stated that the place is a huge hall, where the spirit wait for their final judgment. Many books, many explanations, many illustrations and all different. Volcanoes, misty swamps, interdimensional courtrooms, it wasn't clear what that place look like. It was a myth, something nopony saw yet. However one thing was same in all books, the cerberus: a three-headed giant black dog who guards the gate from the escaping spirits and intruders. Little was mentioned about it, but judging from the size, the gates it protects must be huge as well. Best just snake around it and gently put it out of the way, that seemed as a good plan. All she needed now is to find those gates, located in the caverns of the Everfree Forest.

Meanwhile Twilight was hanging out at the Sugarcube Corner to help Pinkie, since she couldn't do it some days ago.

"Hey Twilight, guess what I baked yesterday? TADA!" the pink pony shouted as she held a basket full of pink little heart-shaped cookies in front of Twilight's face.

"Would you lie a sweetheart, sweetheart?" she asked bursting out in a cute giggle afterwards. Twilight however behaved strangely after the last words. She didn't want to hear it anymore, she just ran out from the house as she'd saw a ghost.

Pinkie quickly ran afterwards as she didn't know what just went wrong. As the chase down the street got more and more intense, Twilight didn't see but she ran at Rarity and Fluttershy on the street, making both unicorns trip in each other. Rarity stood up and helped up her friend "Are you okay, darling?" she asked.

Twilight, without a proper reply just freaked out and ran away as she could "No, no, NO!" she screamed, running back to her sweet home and shutting the door with huge force as she finally arrived, hardly breathing, completely confused and filled with panic as she didn't know why these words made her feel like everypony loves her, and more strangely why she was so scared from this. These words just hurt her ears and soul now, as this strange phobia became stronger and stronger. But when she thought she is over the worst possible thing a voice called her from behind

"Twilight, my love, welcome home.". It was Silence, her left eye as a huge, heart-shaped cannon, little, pink, mechanic lazers pointing at her head as robotic tentacles with small machine guns from her back all pointing at the purple pony's head waiting for the sign to shoot all the love-mag as rapidly as their muzzles could handle. Twilight stared back at her for some moments, paralyzed from fear, but as the gray mare took the first step towards her, she screamed up and dashed to her room, throwing out her assistant, locking the door and drawing the curtains together. Shaking from fear Twilight grabbed the quill and began to write on a ragged parchment.

"Princess Celestia. Help!". She threw the letter out the door and locked it back shouting "Se-send this to the princess!".

Spike sent it right away, as Twilight's other friends also arrived at the library, gathering in front of her room.

Twilight, shivering in a corner didn't open anything, no matter what happened.

"Twilight, open the door please."

"We came to help."

"What's wrong?" the other's asked knocking the door, with no response.

After some seconds, a bright light appeared in the darkened bedroom: Celestia.

"Twilight Sparkle?" she asked.

"Princess Celestia, I really need help. Something strange is going on, everypony keeps telling words that had no effect on me, but now... these words make me cringle and shiver. Like d-dear, darling..." said the scared unicorn. "I don't know why, I don't know how, what is happening to me? Am I-" she added.

"There is nothing wrong with you Twilight Sparkle." the princess smiled back "We all go through times like these, when something seem so strange and far away, yet is so close to us we don't even notice it first.

"Close to... us?!" asked back Twilight.

"The power of love is a powerful, unstoppable one, even stronger than friendship itself. However you can only share it with one pony at the time. Your mind says you're not ready, yet deep inside in your heart you know you're in love, and you can't fight with it. Is that how you feel?" asked the princess with a sweet, caring voice.

"I... I don't know." calmed down the unicorn, even though she felt as what her teacher said makes no sense, she knew that it's quite similar to what's going on inside her. Could it be that her mind and her heart give two different answers? As Twilight was staring at the floor Celestia cut in her thoughts "One more thing, my student: Applejack." she said, winked at her favorite subject and with the same flash as she arrived she disappeared in a blink of an eye.

The purple pony rubbed her eyes, slowly stood up and opened the door with a calm of a monk.

"Everything is okay?" asked Fluttershy worriedly.

"Yes, I'm fine." sighed Twilight as she brushed her mane with her hoof a little "Guys, I should have told you, but the panic overwhelmed me. I felt, very strange at first when you said those word today, and I didn't know why. But seems like I'm going through a... strange state right now."

The others looked at each other and chuckled "Oh darling, we don't mind if you're in love with somepony, it's natural." said Rarity.

"You'll still be our friend." added Fluttershy.

"Even if your love is a bit different than usual." finished Silence, targeting the purple beauty with her eyes as she always does, making Twilight a bit confused.

"Even if you're in love with a giant basket of biscuits! I know you couldn't resist them sweet hearts." shouted up Pinkie from behind.

"Oh, girls, I- wait, how did you-?"

The others just twitched their ears a little as a sign of answer, making Twilight roll her eyes and end up in giggles. Rarity opened her arms wide as Twilight and the others ended up in a sweet, heartwarming hug. As they were done with that Twilight went off-topic "Did you find Opal by the way?"

Rarity gasped, she completely forgot about her cat "My Opal!". She quickly ran out, the others following her. Now that Twilight had come over her problems, it was Rarity's turn.

Late night. All citizens went to take a rest after a hard day. This would especially apply to Twilight Sparkle, but strangely the unicorn wasn't asleep at all. Moreover, as she saw her little assistant being out of this world already, she sneaked out from the room. She quitely walked down the stairs and opened the door a few rooms later. Her breath became more and more rapid as she started to sweat more and more. She finally arrived at the basement, heading down the stairs again. Her body shivering and sweating rivers now. She looked around her and behind two times, then she carefully took out a black book hidden under a cupboard, which was located behind a bunch of small boxes filled with things she doesn't need anymore.

"(Okay... just a peek. Just a small...)" she thought as the tension filled up her body even more. She slowly opened the book and began to read it's pages.

The first one was only the title "Spells from after the funeral", she didn't count that. The next pages were just the tables of contents, she didn't count them either, now the page afterwards, it was filled with dangerous illusion spells, causing their targets to hallucinate and see things that are actually not there. Twilight with her eyes all bloodshot and dripping her sweat on the pages turned to the next page. But as she did she realized what she is doing, and shut the book immediately. A long, silent stare at the emptiness followed the noise of the shut book of banned spells. Twilight put the book back from where she took it and left the place. The unicorn looked back one final time, staring at the pile of boxes, thinking about the unknown, powerful yet illegal things behind them. Quiet, she stalked back to her bed and spent the rest of the night thinking in her bed.... staring at the wall, eyes wide open.