Silence in Equestria

The Sector II: Episode XXI

Fall

Hoofsteps interrupted the silence of the night in an old Ponyville house, as a gray mare walked down the stairs, heading towards the basement.

"Isomnia?" a voice asked quietly, a whisper with a distorted tune. It was MERCY, laying on one of the sofas they brought down from the living rooms and storage rooms. Seems like Blossomforth had a plenty of those. Only the strangest looking of them were awake, the others all asleep.

"Yeah... no, just another change actually. I got use to them already, not a big problem. How are things going?" Silence asked her.

"Yeah.... about that." MERCY turned around, and began to gently awake the others, then gather them around "We were... discussing a few things about the clan and the current situation, include the future plans."

Silence started to worry but asked anyway "... and?"

"We'd like to leave the clan." sounded the answer.

Silence stoned, that was the thing she was most afraid of all the time. With the rest of her consciousness and a weak voice she still tried to persuade the others "Are... are you sure? Isn't there any other way we could....?"

"We're extremely sorry Silence, but we've made up our mind. As soon as we can get ourselves a new, improved hull we'd like to take our leave as well." answered MERCY.

"This is a chance to start it all over." she added.

"With a peaceful, quiet life." continued Orison.

"We may make our dreams come true." said Spade.

"And to be honest, we're kind of fed up with this war fetish of yours." added Vision, making MERCY slap her in the face and correct her "What she meant is that we won't need to wage wars all time. We just got over one and look what happened to our home, our race, ourselves. If you'd like to seize a territory from this perfect land you gotta do that alone." turned away MERCY, emotionless outside but not inside.

Silence was heartbroken, her eyes gazed on the floor as the hoof of the bizarre M.A.R.E. touched her shoulder "This is a pill as hard to give as to take.". The others also looked away, avoiding eye-contact.

"Well..." sighed the pegasus "...after so many years, I can understand. That's the least I can do.... I owe you so much guys, without you we wouldn't have survive this far. It's such a shame that we have to part ways right now."

Death silence took over the room, but a few moments later Silence spoke up in a determined voice "Fine, we'll find a way to get new hulls, much better, more lively ones. This will be our final mission.... my final mission.".

"We'll make sure to support you with whatever we can." replied MERCY, making the others nod. "So what's the plan?" she asked.

"First of all I'm planning to extend my mana energy capacity, so I'd be able to cast more powerful spells, but not here. I've gathered intel about a parallel dimension called Tartarus, a world of the dead. The place is literally unknown and heavily guarded, but if Celestia can't notice the eruptions the black magic causes it might worth it. After this practice I.... I don't know yet. We'd need something that can reproduce on its own or at least via something else, it would make our work much easier. Right now, we can't use black magic, so we're heavily relying on technology. Scrap everything that could be useful from what we currently have, MERCY, whatever you'd like to come up with from the remaining is up to you. Just make it efficient." the pegasus ordered.

The others nodded approving of the new plan, and everything continued normally.

The sun slowly but confidently woke up too, along with the citizens of Ponyville. After Silence packed up to go to work, she was to call out for Trixie but she quickly realized the blue magician doesn't work on the farm anymore. She knocked in anyway, but gently not wanting her to be mad. Trixie however was already up, planning her future. She looked out the window and greeted her neighbor "Morning Silence!"

"Hi Trixie! How are things?" she asked.

"Ah, just packing up for my Grand Tour around Equestria. What about you? Going to work as usual?" she asked cheerfully. Clearly she was happy about leaving that place.

"Uhh, yeah. So... when will you leave?" she asked.

"This afternoon. I start at Trottingham tomorrow. The Grand Tour of The Great and Powerful Trixie would better start on an even number, you know."

"I see..." replied silently the pegasus.

"Why the horse face?" asked the unicorn as she noticed Silence is looks more melancholic than usual.

"Nothing just..." she didn't finish her sentence, rather looked away sadly.

"Before I go one more thing I'd like to say:" Trixie told then ran back inside her wagon, opened the front door and gave

Silence a hug continuing her sentence "Thank you! You helped me so much. Here, let me show you my gratitude.".

The unicorn handed a picture to the pegasus, a picture of herself, posing with a bouquet of flowers and a slightly inviting look. At the lower left part of the picture was standing the name: Trixie Lulamoon. Of course, Silence somehow saw this coming as she knew the unicorn has a bit of a swollen ego, yet she still smiled.

"Lulamoon?" she asked with an adorable grin.

"My full name, I never sign my autographs like that, but you're a special one." she replied, giving the same inviting, slightly sexy look as the one in the picture, only for a moment before she turned away.

"Aren't you late for work?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah, best of luck!" the pegasus came to realization, bidding farewell and dashing away quickly, but bringing her gift to the house first.

"Bests to you too!" replied Trixie.

Silence was still a bit late, though Inkie didn't mind it at all, unlike the previous times. She was sad the dream team now parted way, Trixie was more than a great help at the farm, but now she was gone. Silence didn't want to, yet still had to gave her a pill similar her clan gave to her some time ago. Yet she decided to wait until the end of work time and only then tell her the situation. The rock farm was suffering from dead quiet that day. The to ponies just worked hard, not even saying a word to each other, but breaking sweat as the labor went on and on. After some time Inkie suddenly stopped... a few drops hit the dusty ground, then a few more, more and more. Inkie was crying, for some yet unknown reason. Silence put the hammer down and walked to gray mare, trying to comfort her "Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Please... don't leave." Inkie replied, shocking the pegasus. How did she know? So strange, yet still, Silence felt she need to do something. Inkie clearly didn't want to leave her parents, yet without anyone here, her life would be just like her flank: completely empty.

"That's a though decision, I know. But at times like these we all need some help. Your elders are sure willing to help, so do I." said Silence as stepping towards her employer.

"Maybe it is really the end of this farm... I... I..."

"Need some time to think it over, I know." nodded the pegasus.

"You're free today, okay? I'll let you know if I made up my mind okay?" asked Inkie wiping her tears off her own cheeks.

Silence nodded, hugged the depressed earth pony and took her leave hoping things will be better soon. As she flew against the smooth winds she started to fall into depression because of these sudden changes, though she instantly felt better a familiar voice called her from below. It was Twilight, along with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie as well hanging out at the outskirts of the town.

"Hey, hey girls how are you doing?" she asked.

"Practicing for the Running of the leaves, you didn't forget it, did you?" replied Twilight.

Actually, she did forget it. The Running of the leaves was this afternoon and she didn't even practice for it. It was time already, so she took the opportunity and decided to hang out for some time with her friends. Rainbow as always was competitive and wanted to beat the others to the ground, especially Silence.

"Race around the town?" she asked.

"Oh, somepony wants to eat dust I see." answered Applejack, drawing a line with her hoof on the ground indicating the start line. The six ponies took their place as Rainbow started to count back "Ready... steady go!" she shouted inaccurately and dashing away from the others laughing.

"Oh you won't!" shouted back AJ sprinting right after her. Pinkie simply decided to skip though the whole distance as she usually does pretty much at every time. Fluttershy, Twilight and Silence however didn't really care about the race, they rather wanted to save their energy to the actual competition. The three friends, all behind decided to simply easily trot through the entire race, while having a little chit-chat with each other.

"Where is Rarity by the way?" asked Silence.

"She doesn't really into racing or anything that includes the slightliest chance of getting dirty." replied Twilight giggling quietly. The two racing mares have already disappeared in the orange and yellow scenery in a distance, only Pinkie was seen jumping up and down quite far away showing no sings of exhaust.

"You know, when you're not running and not caught the fever of the competition, it's amazing how beautiful the scenery is." said Silence.

"You should see the landscape in the real race track, it's gorgeous." responded Twilight, making Silence think that they might have the same racing plan, though she wasn't 100% sure about that. Fluttershy just quietly trotted behind them, a bit too quietly.

Twilight felt this should end. "Anything wrong Fluttershy?" she asked turning back to the yellow one.

Fluttershy looked sad a bit, looking at the trees instead of the road and probably being lost deep in her thoughts. It took her a few blinks to realize the question was towards her.

"Oh, umm.... n-nothing." she replied in a silent whisper.

"You sure?" asked Silence anyway.

"No, really I'm alright." answered back for the second time, this time with a normal, confident voice. Twily and Silence then continued to talk to each other. The time just flew by and in all of a sudden they were at the finish line already, where Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie were arguing. Appearently, Pinkie somehow overtook both of them at the end. Rainbow and AJ was all tired now, as their breath was heavy as steel. Still, after a few moments they made up, took a little break and decided to take the rest of the time to regain their energy.

Just about an hour later Twilight and Silence together walked to the start line, where loads of other ponies, with racing numbers on their flanks were gathering. Once again Pinkie Pie was the commentator high up in the little purple hot-air balloon.

"Wow, there are so many ponies this time. Last year there were much less. It's amazing to see this event grow isn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah, quite. How many times did you participate by the way?" Silence asked back as she filled the registry papers and took her number, the 21, while Twilight received the number 19.

"Only once, but I finished at fifth." stated the lavender unicorn proudly shining her little achievement.

"Hey, that's really good. Though I guess I know who were the first two." said Silence, aiming her look at Dash and AJ, who were having a little word-battle at the start line.

Twilight giggled up "Actually, that was not really the case last year.". Her adorable laughter filled the gray pegasus with such happiness. It was just simply cute to watch Twilight laughing as she held her hoof in front of her mouth.

"Attention everypony! The Running of the leaves will begin in three minutes. Take your starting position!" shouted Pinkie from above at the megaphone. Everyone took her place getting set at the small white line. Silence, Twilight, Dash and Applejack next to each other in the huge crowd.

"Hey Twilight, don't think you gotta beat me this time. We're working together with Applejack as a team." said Dash, making Silence crack up. The grey pegasus wanted to hold back her laughter putting her hoof at her mouth but was barely able to do so. She only murmured a small sentence in herself "Best self-goal ever!".

A second later did RD realize that she basically just humiliated herself in front of her nemesis, Silence, but she didn't really care, instead was focusing on winning this one.

"Attention everypony, the Running of the leaves is starting now! Ready, set, go!" shouted Pinkie Pie making the horde of ponies spring towards the forests ahead.

"See you at the finish line." Twilight and Silence shouted together, wishing the bests for each other.

After some seconds, as they arrived at the Feather Forest the giant horde split into first bigger, than smaller groups. Twilight in the back, probably at the last place was trotting gently, wondering at the amazing scenery. The yellow and orange leaves falling in the forest filled with wonderful trees was just indescribable, truly breathtaking. Twilight barely even looked at the road, but when she did, from the heavy rain of leaves a familiar, strangely unfitting color ruined the harmony of the yellow, orange and brown: Gray. Silence of course noticed that somepony is "touching her back with her eyes", and looked back a few eye blinks later. As she noticed who is behind she slowed down, making Twilight run towards her. As they were once again together they felt like asking totally the same question "How come you're-" but instead of finishing they just ended up laughing.

Twilight gave it another try "How come you're back here?".

"Oh, I just decided to save my energy later, so it'll be much easier to catch up on them at the end." replied Silence.

Twilight was completely surprised "Did we read the same book?" she asked in a high pitch.

"I've read no book, actually, but I can assume we're quite on the same wavelength again, darling." the pegasus giggled back at her "I wonder how we don't mirror each other's moves in chess too." she added.

Both of them found it quite funny that they have so much in common. As they trot forward Twilight kept looking around the scenery adoring the beauty of this event "Isn't it beautiful? As the leaves leave their home, falling as rain and piling up on the ground?"

"Yeah..." answered Silence in a sad tone. The fall of the yellow leaves was something recent she could clearly made a metaphor of, as they left the branches, leaving themselves to the wind just like her clan felt apart. Twilight of course instantly noticed that something is off.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

Silence with a huge sigh just kept staring at the ground while responding "Nothing, I just.... lost someone important today."

Twilight's ears wept down, and a second later she stared at the ground too "Oh... I'm sorry. It must be really hard."

"It's alright." told back the pegasus.

Twilight moved a bit closer and looked at her "Silence, if you need help with anything, I as good- AGH!" screamed up Twilight as tripped and hit the ground hard creating a small cloud of dust as her face hit the ground.

"Are you okay?" asked Silence.

Twilight as she slowly raised her head and turned it back to see the causer of the problem ended up in a chuckle "How ironic, the same stump Dash tripped over last year. How come it's still here?"

The pegasus sat down and lent her a helping hoof to help her fellow up, as Twilight continued her broken sentence "Thanks, what I meant is- WOAH!". She once again was interrupted as Silence helped her up she instantly grappled her and hug her thigh, with her hoof on the unicorn's back.

Twilight just sighed "I should have seen this coming, didn't I?". Some strange feeling was itching her all along that this might happen, yet she didn't really care before.

"I wish you would also be this careless in chess." giggled Silence, as she snuggled her beloved.

"Okay, you won I admit." surrendered Twilight, hugging back her friend and trying once again to finish it "What I wanted to say was I, as a good friend will be here if you need help. Just call me."

"Thank you, Twilight. You're the best friend one can ever have, sweetheart." Silence responded as she started to brush her darling's mane with her hoof, slowly, gently. The heady sensation of the smell of freshly cut flowers and the feel of her smooth, silky mane was like a dream coming true. She couldn't have enough it, the pegasus felt like she'd never want to release the beauty from her hooves. But as she started to fall into the deep pit of the rapture Twilight pushed her away, shouting up from shock and taking a quick look behind "What was that?!".

...

...

"I swear I heard hoofsteps." A moment later she turned around and began to trot forwards. "Are you staying?" the unicorn asked.

Silence got up on her hooves again and followed her. They had a really big backlog now, and knowing that they decided to give all they got at the last third. Twilight, in before sprinting told one last thing to the pegasus "Silence, I saw Trixie leaving town this afternoon."

"Yeah, she decided to go back to the show-stopping business again." replied Silence.

"You know, I always hoped she has a good heart, I felt she has a good heart. Yet I wasn't able to change her attitude. But you, you brought up her inner good, turning her into a much better pony. I don't know how you did it but... thank you so much."

Silence blushed a little, but decided to change the topic to something more actual "Wanna race till the finish line?"

Twilight chuckled "See you there." as she started sprinting, making Silence do just the same.

As they entered the Whitetail Forest they could see the back of the others now. The two mares looked at each other and gave in all their might.

"Look at that! Out of nowhere Twilight and Silence suddenly popped up at the back. They overtook BonBon and Lyra, and Roseluck, and Golden Harvest, and Minu- I mean Colgate." announced Pinkie Pie in astonished voice. "Hope Twilight didn't use her teleportation to catch up on them so quickly." she said up in the sky inside the hot-air balloon as she noticed the two friends cutting their way in the field, making the unicorn shout at her, causing the pink pony to apologize instantly. It was a challenge in a challenge, overtaking all those racers while running as fast as their hooves could handle.

As Silence kept doing slaloms between the ponies suddenly another big back popped in her face as she overtook one. Avoiding the painful and quite embarrassing crash she fold out her wings and with a huge flap she jumped over her. This gave a little gain to Twilight, but not much. As they arrived at the last bits of the race, the crowd gathering around the finish line became louder and louder. There were not much ponies in front of them now, it was almost a head to head between them. Some little more dashing they needed. They were breaking sweat but the flame of the competition boosted them onwards. A few more hoofsteps, just a little more.... and they stroked into the finish. Not caring what place they achieved and knowing none of them saw the other one's back they knew this one was a close call indeed. Yet they didn't know who won their little duel, yet.

One thing was sure though, Applejack beat Rainbow Dash earning herself the gold medal. Taking a little break while catching some breath an unicorn walked to them, handing Twilight a smaller medal and certification "Fifth place, congratulations.". She walked to Silence too "Sixth place, congratulations. It was extremely close, though. You should have seen it."

"Thank you." answered the two racer in stereo.

"Hey Twiligh' " called her Applejack "See you wasn't walkin'-takin' during the whole time. Nice lil' reward you got."

"Thanks AJ, I see both of you... worked hard for this. Well done." replied the unicorn between her huge inhales.

"Hey AJ!" shouted Dash from behind "Care for a second lap?" she asked intimidating the earth pony. Clearly she didn't like the second place and wanted a duel for the gold. Applejack giggled and with a challenging look, she nodded standing to the start line one more time.

The unicorn and the pegasus, after seeing their friends sprint away one more time, headed home to get some well-earned rest. On the way however Rarity stopped them, with a letter.

"Silence, darling I was looking for you everywhere. Everywhe-he-here." the white unicorn said dramatically.

"What's wrong?" asked her the pegasus.

"Seems like the mailmare mixed up the letters once again, and this landed in my mailbox." she replied showing the letter to the pegasus with her unicorn magic. The letter was signed to Silence with the word "URGENT" written on it, but already opened. Silence folded it out immediately while Rarity began apologize "Sorry that I opened it, but that "urgent" sign made me worry to death."

"It's okay, Rarity. Now only if I could... there you go." Silence, after a little fighting managed to open up the folded letter. It was from Inkie Pie. She spoke out loud, as she noticed the two unicorn's nerves are on the edge, though it was rational.

"Dear Silence.

After consulting with my parents, I made my decision. I'm going to close the farm and join my sister Blinkie in the jewelry store in Manehatten. I don't want to leave you unemployed, though, rather I'd like to invite you to the business.

It'll be the best for all of us.

Yours sincerelly

Inkie Pie"

The paper's lower part was filled with stains of her salty tears.

"(Poor girl)" though Silence as she folded it.

"You know, I happened to have a need of some extra work nowadays, that the business is going so well, but I think Inkie really needs your help." said Rarity while patting her friend's back.

Silence however had no choice "I have to refuse it, though. I can't afford moving to Manehatten now, not even on a daily basis, especially since I already have made a contract with Blossomforth about her house." she said.

"I see..." answered Rarity.

"But I'd be happy to work for you once again, Rarity." added Silence as she smiled at her friend

"Oh thank you, thank you." responded Rarity hearing the good news. Silence did a great work the first time so she already earned her trust.

"If you excuse me, now I got to reply this letter, and probably pass out afterwards." chuckled Silence bidding farewell to her friends.

"I guess we both deserved it." said Twilight.

"Girls, how about we'd have dinner and some tea at the Ponytail restaurant afterwards?" suggested the elegant unicorn.

The other ponies nodded and after a small farewell they walked home to take a nap after such a tiring day, before they discuss the today's events late afternoon.