Silence in Equestria

The Sector II: Episode XXXI

Phase two

"Hey girls, guess what did the mailmare bring today?" Silence said as smashed the today's newspaper on the ground in anger. It was no average news however, as the entire cover was revolving around one shocking topic: "Aliens FOUND in the Everfree forest!".

Everyone went quiet... there was not a single sound heard for long seconds as they just stared at the paper with the pictures of the creatures on it.

After a while however Silence spoke up as her hoof dealt a powerful blow to the ground "It's still not over yet. I have a plan, girls, but we'll need to work together. Twilight's trial will be today, and her friends will all participate. Until then we're basically have free space to take action."

"Oh hell no!" shouted MERCY "We're not going to blow our cover just to rescue your little girlfriend. She makes a perfect scapegoat for us."

"I wasn't... only talking about her, MERCY." sighed the leader "Look, I'm going to need you for this one alright? One last mission?" she added holding her hoof in front of her confidently, yet still with an impression for asking.

"Do we have anything to lose?" joined someone from the crowd, placing her limb on Silence's.

"Maybe God wanted it this way." did so a second one.

"Alright, it was pretty boring here anyway."

They looked at MERCY, who was hesitating still. She didn't really fancy the plan so far, but she had the trust in Silence and gave in in the end.

"But only if we screw these code names, okay?" she asked, with the others awkwardly nodding, as the strangest looking one threaded the needle. Silence grew a little smirk on her face, before telling her orders.

"Okay, gather all the charms and bling-bling you can, I get to the library and look for something we can find."

"Understood." sounded the reply from every of them, as the grey pegasus bolted out from her house.

Silence anxiously dug in the bookshelves "I swear it was here." She was able to recall the memory of a dark blue book before, but the name was something she couldn't remember, at least until she found it.

"A-ha!" she shouted up "The Mare in the Moon, this was it... I guess." She swiftly turned the pages until she found the answers.

"Legends say the children of the night deified her as she paid visit once the sacred ritual was complete under the light of the full Moon." the pegasus read out loud.

"Lisa, what's the glyph of the Sun? You're the good at this." she asked her fellow member via the interface she had open in front of her.

"It's a sun... like, what else did you think? Why? Is it glyph based?" the reply was heard on a strangely low voice.

"Glyph connection and voice based, I'll bring you the book, meet me in the hall and let's get this going." Silence replied as she rushed back to her house with the book under her wing. Everyone was waiting there, all ready for action and with no time to waste, they stood in the formation of a pyramid, with Silence being on the top and left the house.

"Where are we going, by the way?" MERCY asked as they took off from the backyard of her home.

"Somewhere next to the Forest." Silence replied "That plain empty field should do it." she pointed towards said grassland in a distance far from the town.

Meanwhile, in the huge capital of Canterlot thousands of ponies attended to the trial of a purple unicorn who dared opposing an elementary law of magic.

The courtroom was enormous, with a base of a circle, seats provided at the sides for the spectators as in some sort of Colosseum, while the three judges' stands were towering up, all looking towards the center of the circle where Twilight was waiting. But as the trial wasn't an everyday trial, the judges weren't regular ones either, but the three princesses, Celestia, Luna and Cadence. They all stepped into the room, one by one and took their place, Celestia in the middle while her sister on her right and Cadence on her left.

As soon as the room slowly went completely silent the princess of the Sun began to speak.

"As stated before, Twilight Sparkle has been accused and later found in illegally using black magic in the basement of the ponyvillian library for a reason yet to be found out." she raised sheets of paper folded together with magic adding a few more words "Well, I'm certain we can ignore that last part from now on."

It was the newspaper for today, with the possible reason inside. Luna continued the sentence of her sister. "The pieces of the puzzle art slowly taking a shape. The black magic, the Gates of Tartarus and these creatures art not a coincidence. We hath strong belief Twilight Sparkle's intentions were setting these creatures free and gaining control over them."

Twilight was absolutely confused hearing such lunatic theory, but she was too afraid to speak up for herself, also, being possibly the only unicorn capable of doing it, she had nothing she could have done to change their minds.

"I... think..." began Cadence but she was interrupted by some power, a power forcing her to place her almost unbearably aching head into her palm, while her stomach suddenly felt like being kicked. She wasn't the only one however. Celestia and Luna both began to suffer, making the entire courtroom panic. Everypony thought it's Twilight behind all, except the ones who knew she was not, the ones suffering.

"Princess Celestia!" she screamed, but as soon as she got up on her fours two lighting bolts cast by unicorn guards hit her, knocking her unconscious.

"Shining Armor." said the princess towards the captain who came to aid her "Get Twilight to the hospital and prepare for amputation, I-"

However everything stopped when someone kicked in the main door, making let out a gigantic gong. It was a guard, exhausted and about to collapse, but with a last catch of breath he shouted a last sentence before doing so.

"There is blood raining all over Ponyville!"

Celestia slowly turned to Shining with another request "I want... every single pegasi after this thing!"

"E-everyone?"

"EVERYONE!"

"He-hey, Mel! Guess who was right? Maybe you didn't lose much of your mind during transplantation."

"Give me that!" MERCY interrupted taking the binoculars out from between the hooves of her mate continuing to talk into the messenger system. "What Emily tried to say was that the fish bit the hook." she said adding a bit more after taking a look into the optics "... and it's the motherfucking Moby Dick."

"Did they send a whole platoon after me?"

"You wish that, don't you? How is Ponyville doing?".

"It's raining red, hallelujah it's raining red!" Silence sung as an answer, making the construct smack her hoof into her face with a quiet giggle.

Ponyville was under the storm of terror meanwhile. Dozens of red fluid poured from maroon clouds, painting everything it touches. Ponies ran screaming at the top of their lungs, as they looked like tortured souls with no wounds. Others however weren't that strong. A little pink body lied on the floor, soaking wet from the bloodrain like after a massacre.

Celestia's body froze from the sight, she felt as she could throw up in any second. The closer they got the worse she felt.

"Terrifying. Sister, may we be late?" Luna asked as they landed in the outskirts, where it was still dry, her face pale from the look of the events and she gazed over the town literally painted red.

"I hope not, but something feels... off" Celestia replied. She gathered her magic in her horn and shot a small beam of light into the center of the storm. A second later a spark of light erupted from there as the clouds slowly began to dissolve from inside towards the outer parts, as well as all the blood shed from the clouds fading away.

"Just as I thought, just an illusion." she added afterwards, visibly feeling much better now that the dark magic was gone, only for a second before another wave of awful ache kicked in the belly.

"Dodge Junction is drowning." Silence reported.

"Celly already figured your catfishery out, so pace the fuck up." a sound replied nervously.

"Chill out Irina, I'm doing what I can." calmed her the pegasus.

"That girl shot a beam of light like nothing and everything disappeared in a blink of an eye, so godspeed."

The same sight welcomed the princesses and their soldiers as before, blood, blood everywhere. The citizens were hiding behind the windows of their home, witnessing the horrors outside. But it turned out as another one of those illusions.

"We can't stop every time sister, or else it will pull away." Luna stated worriedly.

"I know." Celestia frowned as they took off to catch up. "We make no stops, anymore." she announced, the frustration being heard clearly in her orders, but a minute later another wave tortured her. However, she was confident this time, as she was sure they won't lose any time.

Appleloosa looked exactly the same, the sand all soaked by the ruby red liquid, the apple trees next to the town bleeding, panic and chaos spreading all over the place, though they did not land this time. With a little maneuver they approached the clouds from the top while the alicorn cast the spell in order to save time. However Celestia was still furious.

"This leads us nowhere!" she stomped. "Luna, set up a quadrant with the Night Guards to the east, we need to set a trap if we ever want to catch this thing."

"How're things back there?" Silence asked nervously, yet her voice containing more signs of exhaustion then frustration.

"Martina just got back with the charms. We're making the connections right now."

"Speed up, I only have Manehatten left, then I gotta turn back."

As they spoke however a glint irritated the corner her pupils, as something reflected the light of the sun in a distance. As she turned her head there several more appeared. She knew what that meant, and she had no plan for this one. She desperately looked for a hiding spot but there were no clouds on the sky and the only thing beneath her were cliffs. Speeding up wasn't possible after flying for such long time, as she pushed herself to the limits with this marathon. She got one idea so far but that was way too dangerous: Shaking them a little bit.

"Princess Luna! I've got vision on-"

"I see it as well, after it!" ordered the sapphire maned alicorn, as in all of a sudden an awful feeling kicked her in the stomach.

A gigantic maroon cloud formed right in front their eyes, extending rapidly. Lightings were seen and heard coming from its direction. The princess had icy shivers going down her spine, but this was not the time to hold back. Without any sign of fear or stopping she and her protectors continued their way above the clouds to catch up for the mystery.

"Mel, everything is ready for the ritual." a voice told Silence.

"Hold on, I'll be there soon." the wanted pegasus replied as she peaked out from the clouds, seeing the platoon leave her behind.

When she found the distance big enough she shut her wings and dove towards the ground, while slowly and carefully arriving next to a railway on the ground, where she collapsed from exhaustion.

Strange sounds of trotting and steel was heard minutes later as a train was arriving. It was pulled by two lighting fast stallions.

"Hey! Steel, look at that!" the dark brown said as they slowed down.

"For Celestia's name, quick Brass bring water!" the other one replied as they took their leather leashes down.

"Milady, are you alright?" the other one ran to the rescue, but he received no answer, Silence's vision was fading, the voices turned into noises she could not understand. She slowly nodded though, as she could read from his mouth.

"I'm gonna take her to the cabin, just get this thing going." the silver coated told Brass as he took the bottle of water and took the pegasus to the first, little cabin where they usually rest when they take a break. Brass put his leash back on and got the little machinery slowly working once again, though somewhat slowly.

It took some time for the pegasus to get back on her fours, but as soon as she felt confident enough she left through the windows and continued her way back. She was so close, only the Everfree forest was left but that didn't mean an obstacle for her anymore.

"I got visual." Irina messaged her as Silence slowly landed next to them. The field was all set, a five-cornered star in a circle was drawn of the grass with magical white dust. All corners of the star pointed towards one smaller symbol.

Silence stepped into the middle of it and shouted "Okay, let's do this!"

The others nodded, took a place between each symbol on the ring and with eyes shut, they began the chant.

"Goddess of the Night, sealed inside the Moon

Please aid us in eliminating the noon.

With you here, sunrise shall be no more,

As we conquer this land from the core.

This is not the end, we must continue!

The only princess worthy in this land is you."

As the last word left their throats a shockwave pinned them off their hooves as a gigantic black pillar erupted from the now dark blue powder on the ground. Everyone tried to get away from whatever it was as it slowly began to turn into a gigantic orb.

They couldn't find words for the sight, just watched it with their jaw dropped open, as the black orb's surface slowly opened up revealing an almost completely black mare in a sapphire armor. Her mane was the embodiment of the night itself, flowing ever so gently as she slowly descended onto the ground. Her eyes opened like lightning, revealing her crimson and emerald irises, with slit black pupils in their middle.

"So... much... power." she said in an gentle tone as her body let off a few sudden twitches here and there.

"Silence?" they asked, with a nod adorned by a grin with multiple fangs given as an answer.

"Irina, get the.... thing, others, charms!" she ordered, as everyone scattered away to the boxes nearby. They took out pieces of paper big as hoof adorned by either red, orange or green borders with a gigantic mystical symbol in the middle, surrounded by smaller others.

They began sticking them up on the transformed Silence.

"Seal out!" Emily shouted after smoothing the surface of the magical paper on Nightmare's body, thus making it sound an unique hum as it stayed on the dark skin.

"Oh I get it now!" shouted Irina as she brought the organ "You rack up a ton of mana by summoning a legendary spirit and some power charms, and burn it out to take the princesses out from the picture. Witty."

"Won't that kill them?!" cried up Lisa from the back after releasing a seal.

"Let's hope... it won't. Nnngh!" Nightmare answered as her body began to tremble more and more under the weight of her own might.

"Okay, I guess it should be enough! Your aura only would make the guards shit themselves now." Irina noted.

"No! More... more charms!" the alicorn replied, but the others however only backed away. Nightmare's body was shaking, she clearly had a hard time to even breath and on the top of all her veins were shown running and throbbing wildly under her skin.

"Another one, Mel and I swear you explode. Learn some moderation!" Emily said with a disturbed look.

Irina took out the changeling node and backed away to avoid injuries. Nightmare's horn began to glow as a dark black aura engulfed her gigantic horn, she stood up on her hind legs with her wings wide open as the glow grew bigger and bigger, the sound of the magic reached a pitch so high it was hardly bearable. She gathered up more and more power until with a huge blow she let it all out on the small object in a form of a beam of light, smashing her front hooves on the ground. Her mane whipped back as if a gigantic wind would have blown it, while thunders clapped from inside it.

Her face blazing from confidence and focus as she stood still while the process lasted. An intense green orb appeared around the node, wrapping it up similarly as the black one did with her. The others ran to a safe distance but she didn't notice that, all it was about was her and the Core.

A second and a third carriage arrived to Manehatten minutes after Princess Luna's arrival. Cadence and Celestia with their army of pegasi arrived, confused about the recent events and the tranquility. There was no sign of black magic around and they could only guess why.

"Did we overtake her?" asked Cadence as the platoon landed outside town.

"I doubt so, we've seen it but were shaken off." Luna explained, but as she took a look at her sister worry filled her face for a second before both her and Cadence grabbed to their chests. An awful pain was felt behind their skin and they had a hard time to.even breath.

The guards became anxious but as soon as one stepped closer to ask a question the alicorns felt an indescribable pain they never had before, as if you'd been stabbed by a knife right in the heart. They screamed up, in the top of their lungs, her cries echoing from suffering and torture, for a second, before they went down like ninepins.