Silence in Equestria

The Sector II - Episode IX:

The secrets of the wilderness

The sun rised as it usually did. The sky was clear, no clouds interrupted the wonderful blending colors of the sky. Only the mud and the puddles signed that there was a storm before. Silence left the library earlier today, and headed straight towards the Everfree forest. She passed by Fluttershy's cottage and flew above the trees to locate the mysterious pillars once again. After she did so, she headed straight that way. She passed over a river and later a bridge that seemed like the only way for a non-pegasus to pass through the endless fog covered abyss under it. The forest itself was so dark and creepy, the trees, the lack of light and the fact that the entire place is unknown just added to this. She finally found it. The pillars were a part of a giant ruined building that seemed much like an old destroyed temple.

The entire building was nothing but some walls, a few windows, the floor and a bunch of pillars. There were pretty much nothing to see here, except the five giant pillars that were suspiciously flawless. It was old, dusty but clearly had no broken parts or scratches. The reason what their duty was, if there were any remained unknown for Silence. However, she noticed a tower next to the ruins that was relatively in a good state. It had a roof, and it had all it's walls, even though it had no windows either. Silence entered the tower slowly and carefully. The tower was built in the same style as the temple was. Lots of columns, still no sign for what the purpose were. As Silence wandered between the pillars the ground started to shake under her feet. As she looked down the entire thing collapsed. Silence flew up from fright in the last second, as her heart suddenly beat extremely fast. She carefully went down to see what she found, but it was too dark as her eyes didn't get used to it yet. She closed them and waited for a few minutes in the complete dark before opening again.

The second time, the place was much easier to see navigate in. It was a small library. It was not even a library, just a few shelves filled with books. She took off some and brought them out to see if there is any valuable information in them. Unfortunately, most of them were either became the food of the rats or the pages were impossible to read. Silence found only four valuable ones. However they were no usual books. The pages contained magic spells and rituals that a sane pony would do hide away somewhere, where nobody can find them. One book was about black magic spells, one contained various poisons, one was the handbook of blood magic and necromancy and the last one had the name: "The objects of the nihil". Silence understood what is going on.

"(I see, they wanted to hide these from the ponies, so nobody can get access to them. No wonder, Black Magic is the complete opposite of the Rainbow Magic those unicorns use. And from how things look like, they kind of succeeded.)" She thought while looking around the place.

"(Though this place would make a quite good clan base. Compared to that cave, this little castle is a miracle.)" she added, took up the books with magic and left the place to inform her clan.

After she did so she returned to Ponyville, but before that, she decided to find a little place to hide these books. Well, only two of them. She found a nice little place under a tree next to a small branch, which was probably the same one that passes by Fluttershy's cottage. She put a rock on them too, just in case. Then one book under a wing, other book under the other and she headed back to Twilight's library. Twilight was busy minding her own business so she didn't notice Silence's "new" books. Now all she needed is a good place to hide them. But where? The bookshelves, of course. Eh, or not. They'd sure see something is off. Under the bed? No, that's not good either. Or... in the bed. Silence carefully laid down the books between the bed's wooden bottom and the sponge. Perfect. But there were no space to the other two. She didn't really mind that though. Later on Twilight decided to leave.

"Where are you going?" asked Silence.

"Oh, I'm about to visit my friend, Zecora." she replied.

"Can I go with you? I'd love to meet some more friends of yours."

"I don't think it's a good idea, she lives in the Everfree Forest. That place is quite dangerous." Twilight replied.

"(Of course, dangerous like my feathers.)" Silence commented in herself. "It can't be that bad."

Twilight sighed "Okay, but follow me, and no panicking, no show-offing and no lone wolf adventures."

"No lone wolf actions, I promise."

"Pinkie promise?"

Silence lost it at this question. "What's wrong with you and your Pinkie promises?! she shouted at the unicorn. "Does anybody even trusts me?"

"Okay, okay." calmed her Twilight.

So they headed back to the forest. It was already the middle of the day then, but as they entered the forest the bright, blue sky turned into dark armies of leaves shielding the ground from the incoming sunlight. It was so dark one'd think it's the middle of the night. After some time as they advanced forward in the forest they approached a little hut. Silence got a weird de-ja-vu for a few seconds but as they got closer everything got cleared in her mind. "(Hey, I know now, this is that little hut I sneaked past the first time. Looks like somebody IS living here.)"

Twilight knocked on the door that a zebra opened later. Twilight greeted her "Hello Zecora."

"Good day, Twilight." she replied then took a look at the stranger. She greeted her as well, with a friendly smile and a nice little poem "Welcome to Zecora's hut my friend. Here all kinds of potions you can find, if you leave a few bits behind."

"Wow, Zecora, I didn't know you're running a shop." noted Twilight in surprise.

"My mixing kettle is so old, I need few of my brews sold, so I could buy another one and continue my brew-program."

Silence got shocked. Firstly because she didn't get how Zecora knows it's the middle of the day, secondly if this zebra weren't the best freestyle rapper in this land probably noone.

"Zecora this is Silence, Silence, Zecora." introduced Twilight the two equines to each other.

"So, what brought you back here Twilight Sparkle? Need a potion or did you brought a kettle?"

Twilight chuckled "The first one actually, I wonder if you're having a few more of those medicine for migraine."

"The same as last time am I right? Here you go, this should get you alright." the zebra took a potion off the shelves and gave it to Twilight.

"Thank you very much, how much-" she tried to ask but Zecora interrupted her.

"Don't need to pay we're friends Twilight, I can't accept money from a pony so kind." but as she finished they both looked at the pegasus, looking out the window in a worried look while living up to her name.

"Your attention doesn't need to flee, I also give you a sample for free." said the zebra trying to set her at ease.

"Thank you, but I'm just wondering if you've seen any paranormal activities around recently." Zecora's eyes opened wide as her pupils shrank from surprise.

"You know, I did see some strange creatures before. They were not from this forest for sure."

"See, this forest is dangerous." Twilight added. "And how did they look like?"

"They were taller than us, standing on two legs, but only that's what I saw, the others you must guess."

Silence's nerves were on the loose now. Her pupils were tiny and she was really nervous.

"I should inform the ponies about that, then." said Twilight.

"No! Don't spread the panic, Twilight." she shouted up. "When they come out and we know if they mean any danger, we prepare ourselves."

"Good idea. Let them be for now. Also, have you made up your mind?" she asked the pegasus.

"Uhh... do you have anything that can help me forget something?" she asked Zecora with a little awkward smile.

Zecora raised an eyebrow but she had a potion for that too. "This drink clears the knowledge of an entire day, the less you drink the less memory you'll pay."

"Thank you Zecora. I knew I can always count on you." said Twilight as they were about to leave. But the zebra stopped her "One more moment, Twilight, if that's the case, I'd like to speak with you... face to face.".

Twilight looked back at Silence "I'll come in a minute."

Twilight and Zecora went back to the hut, while the pegasus waited outside.

The zebra carefully whispered to the unicorn "I don't trust this girl, she seems to know too much. Like she'd know what is going on."

Twilight doubted Zecora's theory "Silence is not like that. Trust me, she has nothing to do with these events. She is just a bit nervous since we came into the forest. Who wouldn't be?"

Zecora nodded as Twilight had a good reason and more knowledge about the pegasus. Yet she felt like adding a final warning "But I recommend you to be aware, because if I am right... beware, beware."

Twilight nodded and left. Both Silence and Twilight returned home afterwards as the sun slowly started to come down.

Silence were planning her night the afternoon. She decided to hunt first then read the book she found. She gave up her sleeping time for tonight. Twilight however noticed the gray pony's melancholy and to break the ice she decided to take a dramatic step. Silence was sitting on the balcony, lost in her thoughts.

"Is something wrong?" the unicorn asked "You look so... depressed."

Silence sighed "Nothing, I just... I just don't know what now. I can't live with you forever, I need to move soon."

Twilight looked at the sunset, then back to the pegasus. "Blossomforth will move in a few days. I could ask her if you could rent her ex-house for a while. We could also find a job until then. I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out.".

She once again gave that lovely look and sweet smile to the pegasus that always calmed her down. "Come now, would you like to play a go match again?"

"Why not? But I'll be with the night-gems." Silence told smiling back to the purple pony. They both went inside, Twilight took out the go table, the black and white stones and so the two minds could clash one more time.