Silence in Equestria

The Sector II: Episode XV

Tartarus: Day 3 - The castle

The fog slowly started to break apart, and Silence's worst nightmare came true, the machinery suddenly began to work in her mind. She tried to withhold it, but she know it is inevitable, she threw it up straight into the river. Her blood was much, much more used up, as the almost black color and the disgusting taste indicated. She was glad she resupplied back in Ponyville though, otherwise she'd be counting her time left, literally. Whisper instantly threw her spear in the boat, seeing her friend collapse.

"Silence!" she shouted "Are you okay? What's wrong?!".

Silence nodded, her black blood pouring out her mouth, slowly saying "It's alright.". A second later she put her left hoof on her head, as the headache hit in. Shaking her head a bit she stood up and wiped the blood off her jaw.

"I'm okay, don't worry that's usual." she comforted the anxious ferrymare.

"Are you... sure?" Whisper asked, making Silence nod again, more confidently this time.

Suddenly the miss broke apart, revealing  peach trees, beautifully arranged on a top of a small cliff.

"Uhh... oops." the ferrymare said looking at her right, where another dock was seen. She turned there and slowly stopped at it. "Well, we're here." she said.

From the dock a cobblestone road led up to the castle, much bigger than it seemed like before. The ghostly unicorn walked off the boat, staring at the building in awe, slowly moving towards it. Silence followed her, but the ferrymare didn't.

"Don't you come?" the pegasus asked. Whisper shook her head quietly.

"Well then, I guess our ways part here. Thank you for everything." she smiled at the ferrymare, who returned the smile along with a shy blush.

"Farewell, then." the pegasus added, waving at her friend who waved back. The pegasus ran after the other mare before losing her in the fog.

The unicorn just kept staring forwards, with her jaw dropped, not even paying attention to the beautifully arranged flowerbeds and bushes on the sides, with endless forests joining them afterwards. Eventually they reached a gate, massive, made of iron, as well as the walls next to it that disappeared in the forest on both sides. It opened slowly as the mare walked in, but closing afterwards, forcing Silence to make a run for it. The castle was beautiful inside as well, despite the gloomy weather, a marvelous peach tree in the middle of the cobblestone square. Two small shrines on the two sides, both wonderfully decorated, with a corridor of wooden cabins on their sides and in the middle the great castle, its towers reaching up so high it almost got lost in the mist. The whole building complex made up a beautiful square shape.

However, our ghost didn't pay attention to anything but the tree in the middle. She slowly walked forwards, stepping off the cold stone into the wet gravel, slowly stood up on her back hooves with the help of the tree and picked a peach. She held the fruit in her hooves with that same stare, then slowly began to chip away from it. Silence just watched the girl slowly eating up the peach. The castle door however opened, with an intense bright light erupting from it. Hoofsteps were heard on the cold cobblestone and as a tall beauty walked out from her home. Not any beauty, an alicorn. White, transparent as all other ghosts, with an extremely long, straight, white mane that swept over the stone, along with her tail.

"Welcome home." she said, her voice gently massaging the ears as a pair of soft, fluffy earmuffs. It wasn't that cute like Whisper's, but rather mature and sexy. Her eyes slowly opening, revealing her unique, magenta irises. "Come, the others are waiting for you." she added, looking adorably at the unicorn who just gulped the last bite of the peach. Silence was far enough from them not to be noticed at first. The unicorn slowly nodded and headed towards the castle door, with the alicorn almost following her, if she wouldn't have spotted Silence.

"And you? Are you lost?" she asked but at the exact moment she finished, her head recoiled in a blink of an eye, her pupils shrinking tiny, for a moment, before she shut them.

"No, I-"

"Not here, please! Come let's talk in the guestroom, as an alicorn princess with an alicorn princess." Silence got a chill, how did she knew? The princess opened the shrine on her right with her magic and moved towards it, Silence following her.

The shrine was pretty plain inside with a small table, two pillows and a small foldable window only. The princess sat down on a pillow, and with a little spell she summoned a fan. Silence sat in front of her. The pillow was quite cold. With another elegant spell, the alicorn summoned a tea set.

"My name is Princess Nirvana. It's an honor to see a member of the royalty here." she bowed, serving the teas.

"I'm Silence, pleased to meet you," introduced herself the pegasus "but it's a smaller misconception about my princesshood." she continued, making the other princess look up at her in curiosity, almost overfilling the cup as she checked the Silence's numbers, who expected this coming and raised the jug slightly to avoid an accident.

"I'm an immortal prototype lifeform called M.A.R.E, actually. I have no relation with royalty, I'm just an artificial alicorn." she said.

Nirvana sipped into her tea "Interesting. Then, mind if I ask for a bit of more personal way of conversation?" she asked.

Silence shook her head gently. "Not at all, in fact that'd be nice." she said.

"Thanks much. Here in the castle, everyone is brother or sister of everyone, it's much more convenient to talk this way. I hope you understand, Silence." she replied, covering her mouth with her fan as she smiled adorably.

"Of course. Nirvana, mind if I ask what this place is all about?"

"Not in the least, after all you haven't seen me." the princess giggled, continuing before Silence could ask "As a pony dies, the first thing she sees is me and the first thing she hears is the voice of my soul, guiding her on the journey to achieve nirvana. Would you like to achieve nirvana as well?" she asked.

"Not really. My goal is to become stronger, to have a chance to survive back in the living world." the gray mare said.

Nirvana brusted out in sheer laughter, with really long beginnings in each session, as if someone would scream, ending it with a huge intake of breath: "Death is a permanent state, a bourne from which no traveler returns." she said, her voice suddenly filled with wickedness.

Silence froze, she couldn't believe it, it just couldn't be...

"You're lying..." she said.

"Huh? Why would I?" Nirvana replied.

"You're lying." Silence repeated, with a smug grin on her face "Up in the real world, Cerberus defends the gates that lead here." she said, smacking her hooves on the table as she stood up.

"Ho-ho-hold it!" laughed back Nirvana "How can you tell he's not guarding it from the intruders like yourself." she asked standing up as well.

"Just wait, because I got a second clue. On the way here, the ferrymare told me that this place was not as isolated as it is now, so mortals could easily come in." she explained.

"This makes no sense, why would mortal ponies come to Tartarus if they can't achieve nirvana alive." ridiculed her the princess.

"That's were the third thing comes in" Silence said, dramatically pointing her left hoof towards the princess in all of a sudden "Your eyes."

Nirvana recoiled her head once again, showing her teeth in sudden shock.

"You can see the remaining life of the living creatures, and you also know about that, which means you must have used it at least once. This gives answer to your little question, they came here to know how long they'll kick it, right?" she asked continuously raising her volume.

Nirvana shut her eyes, sat back down, smiled and even let a silly little giggle free, before slowly starting to clap her hooves.

"Well done. You got me, I admit. Seems like you're not foolish and know what you're into, I like that. But I guess that brought up another question, didn't it?" she said gently, sipping into her tea once again, and quickly continuing before Silence could ask that question.

"I always wanted a partner, a sister I can rely on when needed, like Princess Celestia and Princess Luna." she confessed, looking away, gently stroking her neck with her fan as she slowly opened the door on their right, leading to a gigantic garden of peach trees. Ghost ponies were gardening there, watering the trees to make them grow strong and wonderful, while some fillies were playing hide and seek in a distance.

"The souls in the other world are frightened, I must teach them that death is a part of life and is not something to be afraid of." Nirvana continued.

Silence understood everything now, and felt sort of sorry for the poor princess, yet still, she didn't want to let her clan down... again.

Suddenly, Nirvana became cheerful, trying to forget and cope with the circumstances "So, would you like to go home?"

Silence raised her eyebrow in curiosity "Why? Can you send me there?" she asked.

Nirvana chuckled, with her fan covering her mouth, of course "No, no of course not. But I know the relic that can. It teleports you back to the world of the living if charged enough." she shut her eyes and confessed "You were all right about what you've said, now, can you also guess why this place became so abandoned?"

"I think they became a bit too curious, and wondered here a bit too often, and later on unicorns began to sell age magic so they can make money out of it." Silence guessed, making Nirvana laugh out loud with a huge scream.

"That'd have been pretty, ehm, ruthless from them. Truth is too many ponies came here for the sole purpose of achieving nirvana instead of visiting their relatives, they came here thinking I can give them immortality. However, later on it turned out that their greed corrupted their heart, and they became the ones we know as the corrupted. The princesses were worried about the increasing number of demons and later, they transported the gates to a place nopony can reach and sealed them with a mighty beast. That was the last time I've seen the princesses."

"Princess Nirvana..." Silence said "If there is anything I can help you with...".

"No thank you."

"Something bothers you, you're suffering."

"I... I can't let you do it." shook the princess her head.

"Please..."

The alicorn gave up with a sigh "Let's go inside...". The walked back, Nirvana closing the door behind. "Long time ago, I received a gift from the two Princesses, a fan, made out of the feathers of their own wings. They gave it to me knowing that we'll never ever meet again." she confessed, gazing at the floor, tearing up old wounds of her memories.

"And you lost it in the river." Silence continued, as if it'd be something totally obvious.

"Hmp, I'm not even surprised, such a mastermind you are." the princess replied as she closed her eyes and grinned wickedly, with her tone being a little more "spicy" this time.

"The river flows towards the right side from the shore and it always drifts the things towards the other side. The fan's two sides are white and dark blue, with a golden handle with onyx gem in it's middle. If you could retrieve it... I don't even know what could I do..."

"I'll bring back your fan, princess. I promise." bowed Silence before leaving to complete her mission, yet Nirvana stopped her for a second

"Silence... know that you ca- Aah!" she shouted up as something would have touch her, then she hid her magenta eyes once again and continued "Nevermind, meet the ferrymare at the dock soon, and please, be careful." she said, making Silence nod with a lovely smile and taking her leave.

On the shore she opened up her log, and began to write in once again.

"Day 3: Tartarus, Castle of Souls. As I thought, this place is a sort of Heaven in the middle of Hell here. I'm glad there is a resting place in this disastrous mess. I don't even know how long I've been here, but I had no sleep, and I am growing tired. Maybe I have been here only for a few hours, but I still feel like days have passed, I completely lost my sense of time. The only exit from here though is via a teleport stone. I'm trying to gain friendship with the local highness, if I leave my teeth here I'll at least have a good friend. I wish to leave as soon as I think my power is sufficient enough. End of entry three."

She closed the log and sighed "(I'm getting fed up with this place. I wonder what the others might be doing. Poor girls, locked away like that in the basement, like prisoners. I must find a way to get them a new hull, before they bring themselves to Reset in despair.)"

Suddenly, a voice was heard from a distance, Whisper's.

"Silence, hello!" she shouted, waving her left, while holding the spear with her right. Silence waved back, and as soon as the traveler left the boat, she took her place.

"How was the castle?" the ferrymare asked.

"It was quite nice, I got a little mission from the princess. I got to get her fan back." the pegasus explained.

"Her fan? You mean, that fan as she received as a gift?" asked the ghost.

"Indeed, I plan on patrolling around the shores, the gold will reflect back the sunrays, so it won't be that hard... hopefully." Silence told, making Whisper nod with a sound of agreement.

"S-Silence... your wrinkles are all around your eyes. Are you sure you... you know... don't want to sleep or anything?" Whispered the white one filled with worry.

Silence checked her upper cheeks with her hoof, shook her head and replied "I have no time for that. I've got to find that fan as soon as possible."

"O-okay." Whispered gently the other one, as they took were heading back towards the other dock of the river.

Silent hoofsteps were heard on the wooden surface as the unicorn headed down the basement. Her body all sweating and shivering. The way that was a few seconds of walking midday were seems to be hours away at midnight. Finally she arrived, she closed the door as slowly as it was possible, and began to search at the boxes that lied, filled with worn clothes, childhood memories and other things she will have no use of, except one: the black covered book. The book that was filled with forbidden, dark and unknown spells. With a huge gulp she looked at the book once again...and opened it. The cold aura of sadness, hatred, jealousy and other negative emotions slapped her sweating hot body, but that didn't turn her away.

Twilight kept reading and reading, with eyes wide open, pupils so small they almost disappeared. She was scared... she was frightened... she was curious.