Chapters The Sector II - Episode II:
New Friends
"Thank you, see ya later." Silence ran out the cave through the Everfree Forest. For a moment she stopped and started to listen around. "(What was that?)"
Carefully looking around, she noticed a little hut. It wasn't empty since there were a bunch of shelves filled with potions and herbs.
"(This must be some alchemists' station. Better not lure their attention.)" Silence just sneaked away and managed to get out from the forest where she came from.
It was night already. The streets of Ponyville were empty. Silence - as soon as she stopped wheezing took the opportunity and decided to read the book after all. With her newly gained secret horn she was able to handle these things much easily. But as soon as she opened the book she heard sounds of laughter and music from a house.
She closed the book, put it under her wings and headed towards the noises. The house was quite bigger than the other ones and a wooden logo hung from a pillar with the name "Sugarcube Corner". She knocked on the door... no answer for a while. A few seconds later the door opened and a huge confetti and ribbon shower was thrown at her.
"SURPRISE!" It was the same weird pink pony that suddenly left earlier.
"Nah, how is it?" she asked.
"How is what?" Silence asked back while walking around. The stranger followed her.
"The party, silly. When I saw you at the library I knew you're not from here, and that means you're new here, so I made a giant welcoming party for you, which also turned out as a slumber party. Not bad, huh? Two party for one's price." she was hopping while talking at the same time, which annoyed Silence after a while.
"I invited all my friends, which took a very long time since I have lots of friends. Actually everyone Ponyville is my friend. I don't even know how much they are. Oh, by the way I'm Pinkie Pie."
"Aah, yeah, nice to meet you. I'm Silence." It was a bit awkward to Silence.
"I'd love to show you to my friends to but there are so many. Actually everyone in- oh wait, I already said that. Anyway, I'll let you be for now since THIS IS MY FAVOURIE SONG!" and thus she galloped away to get down on the dance floor.
"(Okaaaay, uhh where is Twilight?")
"Hey Silence!" it was Twilight.
"Hi Twilight! I brought back your book."
"Oh, thank you." she took her book back.
"..."
"..."
"I guess I'll take my leave then!"
"What?! But it's your party. Come I'll introduce you to my friends. A party isn't a party without them."
Twilight led the way, Silence closely afterwards. Twilight was heading forwards a white pony with a blue mane.
"Hi Rarity! How it's going?"
"Twilight you MUST taste this punch. It's magnificent!" she took a good look at Silence afterwards. "Oh, you must be the newcomer. Welcome in Ponyville."
"Rarity, she is Silence. Silence she is Rarity. Rarity is the fashion designer of the town, she makes the most elegant clothes I know. Also she the most generous person I've ever met."
Rarity blushed "Oh Twilight, don't exaggerate things."
Twilight smiled. "Well then, I have to bring back my book to the library, I'll come back soon."
"See ya." said Rarity and Silence at the same time. Twilight grabbed her book and left the room.
Awkward silence filled the place. Rarity couldn't find a topic they can chat about. Luckily Fluttershy noticed Silence and instantly asked: "There you are. I'm so glad that- oh umm, did I interrupt you?"
"Not at all." said Silence.
Rarity got surprised a little bit:" I see you know Fluttershy already."
"Actually we just met on the street."
"Umm, yes. I'm Fluttershy... by the way." she became cute and shy again.
"Silence, nice to meet you." they shook hooves.
"Umm, Silence?" asked Fluttershy.
"Yes?"
"Don't mind if I ask you what did you do in the Everfree Forest? But, um, you know, you don't have to tell me if you don't want."
"Oh, the forest? I just went there to grab some, eh, herbs."
"O-okay." Fluttershy's voice was so weak that it became whispering, which is quite hard to hear in the middle of the party. Suddenly out of nowhere Pinkie appeared again.
"Hey girls, wanna play board games upstairs? It's gonna be super-duper fun."
"Wait for me too!" shouted Twilight from a distance.
Silence rolled her eyes and nodded with a smile on her face. They all headed upstairs inside Pinkie's room where another pegasus was waiting. She was quite different. Her coat was blue and her mane and tail was all rainbow colored.
"At last Pinkie. This waiting is killing me." when Silence entered the room she asked: "Who's this girl?"
"My name is Silence, and, let me guess, you are Rainbow..." Silence started thinking for a few seconds, while the rainbow pony stood there with her face full of self-pride. However this became a rather annoyed expression after Silence's guess: "Rainbow... Thunder?"
"Rainbow DASH!" shouted madly at Silence.
"Rainbow, darling don't be so intolerant, also, where is Applejack?" Rarity interrupted.
"Oh, oh, oh I know, I know," waved Pinkie wildly with her hoof in the air. "she said she can't come because Applebloom hurt herself and she needs to take care of her." continued Pinkie with a giant smile on her face afterwards.
"Applejack?" asked Silence
"Another friend of mine, I'll introduce her later then." replied Twilight.
"Are we going to play or what?" shouted intolerantly Dash.
"Bah, that's why we're here silly" answered Pinkie while patting her back.
They sat down forming a circle, grabbed a random game from the set and spent the rest of the night playing and having fun.
The Sector II - Episode III:
Afterparty
The sun was already rising when the party was about to end. The ponies slowly started to go home one by one. Pinkie, Silence and Twilight were about to leave too, as the others already left. The room's door opened, and they came out tired and yawning.
"Thank you for helping cleaning up this mess." said Pinkie.
Twilight, after a huge yawn replied: "You're very welcome, thank you for the nice party."
"Yes, thank you very much." Silence added.
Twilight was still showed a little amazement as they walked in the corridors "I can't believe someone have beat me in a chess match. This have never ever happened before with me."
"Yeah, but it was still 4:1" Silence added. But as soon as she finished it, she got a really odd feeling. She started moaning while giddying around and at finally she leaned to the wall. After some seconds and a long moan Silence began to heave. Pinkie and Twilight really started to worry now.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked without getting any answer. "I'll call help."
But as soon as she turned around Silence replied "No, no I'm fi-", the "i" at the end instantly became another retch. Knowing that Silence can't take it for long anymore, Pinkie shouted "The fillies' room is in the end of the corridor!"
"Thanks." Silence turned around and galloped towards it as fast as she could. She opened it's door with such a force it hit the wall, bounced back and almost closed. She turned back and closed it completely, then run to the basin to give it out.
Twilight and Pinkie followed her and waited outside, listening quietly. After some more heaves, a few drips of blood came out, then a few more, then much more. Silence vomited up enough blood to fill a cup. After that she stopped, wheezing. "(Is it over now?)" asked it in herself. But no, it wasn't. In all of a sudden her head started to ache and itch. She felt the mechanics in her head starting to work hardly. It was barely bearable. The itch was intolerable, it felt awful and in such a point where her hoof didn't reach: inside her head. Silence was keeping her front hoof on her head as the migraine became worse and worse. Then, in a blink of an eye, it stopped. She felt normal again, like before except she was all broken down, battling for breath.
"(That must have been that "change" she was talking about.)" she slowly approached the basin which still had some blood on it's inner sides.
"(All this blood... for the system.)" she washed down it, and slowly looked up to the mirror, noticing she had a bit of blood at the left side of her mouth. She washed that down too and sighed.
"(Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all...)" but as she looked back in the mirror her expression changed from sad to serious
"(...but I'll do it anyways, there is no turning back now.)"
Now that finally she got some air too, she came out. Twilight and Pinkie with a face full of worry were waiting for her.
"Are you okay?" asked Twilight for the second time now.
"Yes, yes. I'm fine."
"What was that? You didn't seem to be so ill all night."
"I swear I didn't put anything in the punch!" Pinkie interrupted with an extremely nervous face.
"Look, if you are sick, you can stay in my library." said Twilight.
"No, no, no, I'm okay." declined Silence.
"We have a standby bed, you wouldn't be a bother."
"Twilight I can't-" but she stopped when she saw Twilight won't give up anyway. "Okay, then."
The Sector II - Episode IV:
Not as good expected
As the two ponies, Silence and Twilight finally arrived at the library all they had in mind was one thing: Sleep.
Twilight, with an extremely tired voice shouted up: "Spike!". But no answer. Instead of trying again, the unicorn instructed Silence to her, correctly their bedroom, that was located upstairs. Twilight's room was pretty interesting, but as all the other parts of the library, it was filled with bookshelves. On the left, stairs led all the way up to the place of Twilight's bed that was cleverly designed as some third floor, on a platform created on the top of the built-in bookshelves. A small telescope was observing the skies through the small window next to Twilight's bed. However as the pegasus went to check it out from closer she stopped as she noticed the smaller bed, with some strange creature sleeping on it. It was most likely Spike, seeing he was all... spiky. The unicorn arrived from below, carrying a bed different from hers, along with a green blanket and a small white pillow. She carefully laid it in front of her bed and after a long yawn she laid herself in her pretty, blue-blanketed bed as well.
"Good night then, Silence." she said. A few moments later, the pegasus also went to sleep.
Unlike Twilight, Silence didn't sleep that much. When she woke up she still saw the unicorn resting in her bed silently. She took the opportunity and decided to read the book she got from Twilight long ago. She quietly left the room and started looking for it on the shelves, however she didn't really found it. Instead she decided to ask Spike. If only he'd have been easier to find. After some time Silence eventually found him, stuffing himself with ice-cream wildly. His mouth was full of the cream and he even got a little around it. Silence came closer and asked him with a bit disgusted face "Uuh, Spike?"
"Yeff?" asked back Spike with his mouth filled with ice-cream.
"Do you know where can I find history themed books?"
Spiked waited with the answer this time and as soon as he swallowed the desert, he replied: "They're on the shelves next to Twilight's checklist." and as he finished he took another mouthful of ice-cream and asked the pegasus: "You wan' fome?"
"Uuh, no thanks." said Silence with a deeper tone and her face full of disgust.
She turned back and started to look for Twilight's checklist while murmuring the followings: "(THAT is her assistant? Oh my go- ah there it is.)" She found Twilight's checklist hung on the wall. It was incredibly big and detailed for a checklist, though. It even had the yesterday's date on in, which a bit crept Silence out thinking: "(Please don't tell me she got a storage full of these.)" Then as Silence looked at the things Twilight checked yesterday she found some strange ones like: "Check the checklist so we didn't forget anything." and "Check again the checklist as for we got everything checked." and the last one "Check the list two times in case we've forgot something." Silence's pupils shrunk, and her eyes started to twitch. She've never seen such bizarre, overly exaggerated checklist ever. Her face just screamed of confusion. Anyway, she decided not to care about it, rather look for the book on the shelves next to it. So much knowledge lied in that bookshelf, inside those tidy, correctly ordered books. After a few seconds she found it after all. She put the book in her mouth and headed back into the room where Twilight was sleeping, since she didn't want to have that dragon interrupt her. However it was way too dark in Twilight's room. In such conditions it's impossible to read. What now? Should she go back and stay with Spike or...? No, wait. She got an idea. A little, dim light of her horn can't wake Twilight up. But then she'd need to reveal her creepy, hole-filled form. What if Spike comes in or the unicorn wakes up and sees everything? And then Silence got another, pretty simple idea: to turn around. Since her holes were on her left side, even if something happens they wouldn't notice. And she did so, but as she dropped her mask the door opened.
"Does she wake up yet?" whispered Spike.
"No! Leave us be, Spike!" she answered angrily but still quietly.
"Okay, okay." and he closed the door.
Silence's heart was beating madly. That was close. She opened the book and began to suck in all the information in it.
A chapter about a royal specie called alicorns especially caught her interest. They are creatures that have both wings and horns and are treated as gods in this land. Right now there are only two of them: Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna. One raises the sun while the other raises the moon and the stars. Silence was amazed by this amount of power. She needed it. She starved for it, even though she technically already was an alicorn. Fake, but alicorn. However her wild fantasies were suddenly shattered as Twilight started to slowly wake up. She dropped the book she held with her magic and quickly turned back to normal.
After a few yawn Twilight gasped. "Oh my god, oh my god, what's the time?" she looked at the clock on the wall and began to panic: "Ah! I'm late, I'm late! I didn't even write my checklist for today and the half of the morning is already gone." she started pacing around looking for something.
"Checklist paper, checklist paper, where is my checklist paper?" Silence just lied there in her bed, with her eyes open wide as she looked at the nervous unicorn. "Aha, there you are!" shouted up Twilight who instantly grabbed her ink and quill afterwards and began to plan the today's schedule, speaking loudly in herself, not even noticing Silence at first, but as soon as she did, Twilight became a little embarrassed. "Oh, hi Silence... eh, since when are you awake?"
"A few hours actually. But I see you're quite busy now and I don't want to slow you down, so-"
Twilight's face brightened up. "Great idea, you visit Applejack, while I do my work, SPIKE!!!!" she shouted.
Silence suddenly got confused. Twilight didn't even force her to stay this time, moreover... anyway, she took her leave as the purple pony kept writing madly. But she forgot the whole confusion as soon as she walked down the main street. It was clear from litter, just like the sky from the clouds. As she trotted past several houses along with the Sugarcube Corner, she noticed a taller building with the name "Carousel Boutique". Why was it so familiar? Then the door of the shop opened and a familiar face appeared. It was Rarity. Such a perfect opportunity to ask where this Applejack character is.
The Sector II: Episode V:
A friendly farmer
After having a little talk with Rarity, Silence went to Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack's home and workplace. The scenery was beautiful, the dirty road, the white fences and all the beautiful apple trees behind waiting for harvesting. It was truly spectacular. The path led Silence past a giant red, countryside house. This must be it.
She opened the fence. "Hello? Is anybody here?".
For the voice, a little filly appeared: "Good day, ma'am! Can I help you with something?" The yellow filly asked. She had that strange yet badass countryside accent making her even cuter.
"Yes, actually. I'm looking for Applejack."
"AJ is buckin' apples since Big Mac is hurt. If it's that important you can look around though."
"Fine, thank you."
And so she started looking for AJ in the giant apple tree forest behind their house. After a while Silence started to hear someone, kicks and the noise of the apples falling. She headed straight that direction, and in less than a minute she found a girl. She wore a nice cowboy hat and her hair tied at its end. She was kicking the apple trees with such power almost all the apples fell in one-two kicks, filling the buckets under them. Silence came closer to greet her. "Hello, excuse me, I'm looking for Applejack."
The cowgirl kicked a last one and answered. "I'm Applejack."
Silence was confused. This was the last thing she expected: a girl with the name AppleJACK. However the girl continued "...however this is private territory ma'am, strangers aren't allowed here."
"But I was just sent here by a filly."
Applejack sighed and kicked the ground in anger. "Okay, then. Let's speak outside." she headed back to their house and as soon as she saw the other girl she told her off "Applebloom! What did I tell ya' 'bout the strangers?"
"But it seemed to be important, sis. She said it like it's urgent."
Applejack turned to Silence "Is it urgent?"
Silence answered "Actually, Twilight sent me, as you're her only friend I haven't met yet."
AJ replied "Can't it be some other time? I have to buck that entire area today."
But Silence didn't give up that easily. She got something in her mind.
"What if I help you bucking all these apples? We could even get to know each other more that way."
Applejack approved with a nod. She rarely gets help from strangers in the farm. As they headed back to buck the rest of those apples AJ asked with gratefulness "Thank you for your help ma'am, but don' mind if I ask your name?"
Silence got shocked a bit "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, didn't I? My name is Silence."
"Ah, the new fella who Pinkie threw that party for."
"Well, yes." replied Silence as they shook hooves.
"Here we are." said Applejack as they arrived the area she was talking about. Even though they started to work, AJ kept up the conversation. "An' how was the partay?"
"It was quite nice, from a slumber party."
"Slumber partay? How the hay does that happen?"
"Let's just say I arrived a bit late."
"Hah, just a bit?"
Applejack noticed Silence can't really take much of the work. While she finished with a tree in seconds, Silence needed about triple or even more time with each. And she was kicking it with all of her might. However, after a few minutes she stopped as she saw something.
"Hey AJ!"
"Yeah?"
"I don't think I can buck this all alone." she pointed up at a smaller house in the tree. It looked like some kind of clubhouse. Applejack - after a little laughter responded "That's my sis' clubhouse. She tends to spend her time here with her friends hunting for their cutie marks."
"Team headquarters, eh? That's neat." said Silence while she walked around to check it out from different directions as AJ went back to work. After she finished, Silence also went back to help.
As the two pony were doing the farm work and chatting with each other, after a while they became much more open towards each other. However, unlike the skilled applebucker Applejack, the pegasus wasn't used to this kind of labour. Eventually, Silence collapsed.
AJ walked to her with a warm, friendly smile and asked "Tired already, suga'cube?".
She lent her new friend a hoof and helped Silence up, who definetly had bruises on her hooves now. She hardly could stand on them and they were swollen, mostly her back ones.
"You know, if ya'd like to rest feel free to do so."
"How are you even able to do this all day?"
AJ giggled "If ya bite too much you can't chew, suga'cube. Don't try to take on the whole field on your own. Go, take a rest while I finish of them few trees left."
Silence laid down on the ground, watching Applejack finishing her job. "(And she is doing this all the time... I swear she could kick an entire house down with those legs...)" she thought. However, suddenly she noticed something falling from the sky. It was all blury, she couldn't see it well. As AJ lift her legs to buck a tree something else hit it before her making the apples fall. One even hit her head.
"What in tarnation?" she looked back then shouted "Rainbow Dash!".
Dash apologized with an embarrassed smile "Heheh, emm... new trick, sorry for that."
Applejack put her palmed her face and sighed. Silence shouted from behind "Are you okay?" she slowly stood up and with some flaps she flied there to check them. Of course, she kept herself in the air afterwards too, sparing herself from an even bigger pain.
"How about practicing somewhere you don't mean potential danger to anybody?" she asked the pegasus with anger.
"Why would I? Rarely I crash while flying, I don't even remember hitting somepony before." replied Rainbow.
"You said jus' the same last time you blasted through Twilight's roof." said AJ.
"That was.... an accident, and hey, no risk no rewards."
"Take your fancy flight tricks elsewhere, Rainbow. We're trying to work here."
"Actually AJ, we're already done." corrected Silence.
"Fine, fine. At least the Rainbow Raindance will be a surprise for you too." said Dash.
"Raindance?" asked Applejack.
"Do you even read the weather schedule the pegasi send weekly?"
Applejack remaind silent looking at Dash with a stare that pierced through her soul. It was like a lion's that is about to rip it's victim into pieces.
"Ah, yeah, you have to work." told Dash with another embarrassed smile. "Anyway, see you later, I have practice to be done." and then she dashed away.
"She isn't a really sympathetic person." noted Silence.
"Don't mind Rainbow, she is quite show-offy when it's about flyin', but still a nice gal." comforted her AJ. "Let's get back an' tell Big Mac I- ehm we've finished his job too." she continued.
"Good idea, the sun is unbearable." approved Silence.
As they went back Silence noticed a little piece of paper in the mailbox. It was the weather schedule Dash mentioned.
"Looks like here'll be a storm the day after tomorrow." Silence noted.
"When!?" AJ took a look at it too. "Shoot, we won't have enough time for doing the harvest!"
"I can come to help you tomorrow too." offered Silence.
But AJ refused: "No, you have to rest them hooves for now. Just go, tell Twilight to bring the band. You did more then enough already suga'cube." she finished her sentence with a warm, lovely smile. Silence nodded and flew back to the library to tell everything.
The Sector II: Episode VI:
Alone
Silence rushed back to the library in such a hurry that she forgot her wounded leg as she landed on the balcony, where Twilight was peacefully reading her book. She jumped and screamed as soon as her leg hit the wooden floor.
"My ears! Silence, what's the-" but before she could finish it she noticed Silence's red, swollen back legs and shouted. "Sweet Celestia, what happened?"
"Don't care about it" Silence answered "just hurry to Applejack, she needs your help, all of yours."
Twilight nodded and hurried to call Spike, and after some minutes they both left. Silence was now alone... in peace and quiet. The library suddenly turned into a graveyard for books. She noticed the bandages on Twilight's shelf which she prepared for her. How kind. She went to the bathroom to wet them and bandage her hooves. As she headed back to the desk, smiling, wondering about what kind of gift she should give to Twilight as a sign of gratefulness. However, when she saw the ink and parchment on the table, she began to think of something else. She hadn't written a report to her clan yet. Given the circumstances, she grabbed her the quill with her magic and began to write.
"Dear fellow clan members.
I know these are hard times for all of us. This place, Equestria, I'm discovering is a wonderful land. The equines here are kind and friendly. The food however, since we're talking about ponies, mostly isn't edible for us. Most likely the same applies to all equines' blood. There is a presence of both science and magic, but the technology is not good enough to use them together. My plan: we need to keep ourselves secret, until we have been assimilated into their society and until we get powerful again. Even if it's not what I imagined, the goal of the 4th generation vampires have been reached. We'll continue our vampiric lives as a big family, despite these major changes.
Yours
Silence"
Talking about vampiric life, Silence noticed she was getting hungrier and hungrier. Although she didn't at all want her inner, bloodlustful beast - what every vampire has, to take over, she patiently kept waiting for the night. Until then, she decided to look after something that can help in her plans. Something that can make her more powerful. Something that can turn her into an alicorn. She was looking for anything that can be useful help in reaching her goal. After several books and no success, she started being really nervous. She was afraid Twilight may come back in any second. Finally, after hours of searching she found something. A ritual that can transform one into whatever her wish is for the time of 24 hours. But it's materials were unknown for her, for now at least. Later she found another spell, and another one. She took the book to the bedroom for further reading. But when she thought she can read the perfect spell book alone, Twilight and Spike came home. Of course, she turned her disguise back on, as she heard them entering.
"Hello, Silence, we're back." she said.
Silence came out from the bedroom, leaving the book on her bed. "Hi Twilight, how was the applebucking?"
"Really good, actually. Sweet Apple Acres probably never had such a huge harvest. Applejack is really pleased. But what about your leg? I see you can walk now." noted Twilight with a sweet, happy expression.
"It is much better now. Thank you very much. I don't even know how I could repay."
Twilight smiled and put her hoof on Silence's back "You don't need to repay anything. As your friend I'm happy to help you if needed." As soon as she finished her sentence Twilight yawned "Ah, I guess I'll take a nap."
She rubbed her eyes with her hooves and headed to her room. Only then did Silence notice how time flied. It was already dusk. The sun, along with the ponies slowly went to sleep. Silence patiently waited on the balcony gazing at the sunset wondering about what will the future bring and what have it already brought. The syringes that some time ago were the only ways for a vampire to get to the sunlight have disappeared. Their places have been replaced by small, fragile mechanics working inside a body that was planned to be the Perfect daughter of Science and Magic. The sun disappeared from the horizon, there were almost no pony on the street, and as the stars appeared one-by-one on the darker and darker sky, Silence flew away to taste the blood of a pony for the first time.
The Sector II - Episode VII:
First blood
As Silence flew through the night hunting for food, she wondered about where she could hunt safely. Silence was so hungry she could barely control herself. Minutes felt like days until she decided not to wait for the food but go for it instead. She quietly sneaked into a random house looking for her victim. She was starving, but she had to be extremely slow and careful. She opened every door incredibly slowly and patiently, walked around the corridors quietly and looked around every corner with extreme care. Few minutes passed only, yet she felt like the sun may come up in any minute. Finally she found the bedroom. Her breathing became more and faster, her hearth beat faster than a speedcore song, as she came closer and closer to her food. In the bed, a brown, messy haired earth pony was living her dreams, not knowing about the stranger two hooves away from her. Silence licked her fangs; the anesthetic was dripping from it. She slowly leaned to her neck, and carefully stuck her fangs into it, then began to suck the ruby red miracle out of it. The mare's blood was way different then the ones she got used to, yet it tasted strangely good... no, it was wonderful. Silence loved it, she wanted more, more and more. But she had to stop. She can't risk to kill a pony just because it's blood is tasty. As she finished she slowly backed away, not noticing something behind her. The very next moment she only realized that she kicked something by accident. But before it would have fallen making a huge noise, she grabbed it with magic. It was an instrument, a cello actually. Silence carefully placed it back, then opened the window, left the room and closed it back with magic. She flew away as soon as she was able to, trying to calm herself that it's over and with the fact it won't be this hard next time. She sneaked back to the library through the balcony. Nice and easy. Twilight was asleep of course. Silence went to sleep as well, which wasn't hard as she fell asleep almost instantly.
"Silence. Silence!" a familiar voice said. Silence slowly opened her eyes. "Good morning dream dweller." It was Twilight, levitating some coffee with her unicorn magic.
Silence rubbed her eyes and looked at the grandfather clock at the other side of the room. It was 11 AM already, yet she felt like she slept only some minutes.
"Here, I made you coffee, we have a lots of things to do today." she gave Silence the drink and showed her the checklist she just made.
After Silence slowly drank her coffee they went for a breakfast in the restaurant nearby. Silence couldn't help but ask her "So... what's the first thing we need to do?"
Twilight replied "Tomorrow the pegasi plan an entire storm since cause of the lack of water, flowers are going to wither."
"Yes, and...?" asked Silence with even bigger curiosity.
"Storm means lighting and thunderclaps, which means somepony have to take care of Fluttershy the time being. She is afraid of them."
"So you mean you're going to do the job?"
"Not exactly. That's where the problem comes from. AJ is busy with packing the yesterday's harvest, Rarity needs to travel to Canterlot buying materials for her new dresses, and I need to write a summary report to the princess about my reports."
"How about Pinkie? Or Rainbow?"
"Rainbow leads the pegasi during the action. About Pinkie... we'll see it soon."
"So next checkpoint is Sugarcube Corner?"
"Yes, let's go."
Twilight paid for the breakfast and they headed to the Sugarcube Corner to ask Pinkie if she can do the job. But in all of a sudden, Twilight stopped. She noticed something, or someone. A pony, who was packing her furniture and luggage on a wagon. Twilight went there leaving Silence waiting:
"Hey Blossomforth! How are you doing?"
The pegasus turned back "Twilight, hello! I'm quite busy right now, as you can see. So much things I have, and so few I need, but I don't want to just throw them out, I'd rather sell them or..." Blossom gasped as she had a great idea "...or I'd just give them away." She opened a chest of hers and grabbed the first two things she saw.
"Here you go." she gave Twilight a pair of earmuffs. "aaand this one is for the new girl." she also gave her a pair of relatively big white earrings.
Twilight blushed "Thank you but..." but the pegasus interrupted her
"No, no, Twilight. You did so much for me and everyone. Now it's my time." she said smiling.
"Fine. But what is this fuss about? Are you moving from town?"
"Yes, actually. I'm kinda sad I have to leave Ponyville, but..." Blossom's sweet smile and cheerfully look suddenly turned into sadness.
"Yes, I know how you feel. And when will you move?"
"Next week, to Cloudsdale, family reasons. Could you tell it to Pinkie, so it won't take her by surprise."
"Of course, we were just about to visit her."
"Thank you, Twilight."
Not wasting their time, the girls went to drop by Pinkie.
"Tomorrow? As in the whole day tomorrow? Nonononono, I'll have to babysit tomorrow." was Pinkie's answer.
"Okay then, we have to find another way." answered Twilight after a sigh.
"...but...but I you can send her here and I'd babysit Fluttershy too." said Pinkie then started to laugh on her own idea "Fluttershy in diapers and a bib.".
"Calm down Pinkie, I'll take care of her." interrupted Silence with a serious voice.
"I don't know, Silence. Fluttershy doesn't communicate really good with people she barely knows. Especially in such circumstances."
"Doesn't matter. Do you have any better idea?" questioned Silence lowering her eyebrows.
"No. I mean not yet."
"Trust me Twilight, I can do it."
Twilight sighed "Okay." then she turned to Pinkie "By the way, Blossomforth's moving from town soon."
"Oki, doki." she answered. It took a few seconds for Pinkie to process what Twilight just said, but when her mind was done with it, Pinkie's face turned sour and sad, her mane and tail deflated. Now she had a hairstyle similar to Silence's, but longer. With a voice of someone who's about to cry she said "Why would she leave us? Doesn't she like it here?"
"I don't know Pinkie. But she said it's not her choice, that she is sad she have to leave, and she'll try to pay a visit as often as she can." calmed her Twilight with no success. "Pinkie, she needs you. I bet she'd be moved if you'd make her a farewell party. Otherwise why would she tell me to tell you?"
Pinkie's hair suddenly became poofy again. "Then... I'll throw her THE BIGGEST PARTY EVER!" she shouted joyfully. Pinkie turned back into her normal, jovial, adorable form. Silence and Twilight smiled and after bidding farewell they went on their own way.
The Sector II - Episode VIII:
The storm
Silence could barely sleep that night. She kept thinking about what the tomorrow brings. Eventually, the time had come. Silence woke up early, as her dreams were filled with doubt and questions. She packed some drink and snack in a small bag she'll take with herself. For a moment she stopped, though and after looking behind herself she quickly put her letter there too. The sky was already full of rainclouds, waiting for the sign like an army before invading.
Silence was taking a last look at the library before she was moving on when Twilight stopped her "Take these too! Just some help.".
She gave her the earmuffs she got from Blossomforth the day before. Silence took them and thanked her, but her voice was a bit different.
"Is something wrong?" Twilight asked.
"Uhh... nothing." she replied. She was clearly felt a bit bad but not enough to make Twilight worry about. She put the earmuffs in her bag and flew away with it.
Silence flew in a higher altitude than the pegasi usually does. Instead of flying around the height of the roofs she did it much above of them. She started to feel worse and worse with time, the beautiful landscape became a blurry mess and she felt weaker and weaker. She knew what's going to happen yet she kept forcing herself to stay focused until she arrives, without success. The giant, black doors of her eyelids closed, her wings stopped to flap, the bag dropped from her mouth as she began to fall. She crashed into the ground on a plain next to Ponyville with a giant crack sounding from her. Something broke. Something definitely broke. She started heaving again, the blood streamed from her mouth once more leaving a red puddle at her head. After the suffer of "the change" Silence slowly stood up and checked if everything is okay. She found her bag too, with the things it contained scattered around it. She put everything back in her bag and continued her way towards the Everfree Forest in her usual flight altitude. She didn't do it for no reason. As she arrived she started monitoring the terrain for a sign. The sign that located the hideout of her clan.
"(There it is!)" she shouted in herself looking proudly at the sign mentioned, which was four red stones put on a top of a cliff in a way that if we connect them with a line, we get a square. Clever idea. She threw the letter in the cave of the cliff and flew higher back out of the forest. However she didn't instantly turned back. She noticed something.
"(What is that? An.... altar?)". Far away, a river cut the endless forest in half. Behind it a few stone pillars peeked out from between the trees. Only the very tips of them were seen. "(I'm gonna check it out later.)" she mumbled in herself. Wise decision since raindrops started to fall from the sky. Silence quickly turned back and headed to Fluttershy's cottage.
As she arrived it was already raining cats and dogs. She didn't even need to knock on the door, Fluttershy opened it for her.
"Come in, quickly!" she said. Silence wasn't wasting time and did so. Fluttershy quickly rushed to the bathroom to grab a towel saying "Oh my goodness!" the whole time. She wanted to dry her but she accidently dropped it when she got back. Silence picked it up and dried herself.
"Oh my, it must be terribly cold out there." said Fluttershy while looking out the window.
"Trust me it is." Replied the pegasus as she rubbed the towel against her mane.
"Thank you very much." she said. Fluttershy turned her face away mumbling something. Silence raised an eyebrow. What happened to her? She was so nice and open a second ago. But she came closer, took the towel off Silence hoof and took it back to the bathroom.
"I take my stuff in then, okay?" she asked. No answer. Silence sighed "(This will be harder than I expected.)"
She took the bag and put in on the desk next to her. The room was huge, filled with nests and homes for other various animals. Yet in the middle there were more than enough space for a giant carpet. The furniture was all on the sides of the room, and stairs were leading up to Fluttershy's bedroom. Speaking about her, she came back from the bathroom, but as the first thunderclap struck she ran up the stairs in fear with a squeak. Silence followed her.
Fluttershy was hiding under her blanket on the bed.
"Fluttershy." called her out Silence. "Fluttershy come out, please."... no answer. She rolled her eyes and chugged the blanket down.
Fluttershy opened her eyes as her linen shield disappeared "Um, hello?" she said in soft voice.
However as another thunder crashed, she quickly hid herself a level below: under her bed. What could Silence do? She can't just pick up the bed and throw it away too. Anyway, there were no way to give up.
"Come on Fluttershy. You got through these so many times. Didn't the others try to convince you?" she asked.
Fluttershy replied insanely fast "Twilight explained how it works, Pinkie sang a song, Rarity said she'll make a dress about it, Rainbow related it to her cutie mark and AJ just told a story of hers." said the scared pegasus rapidly. Silence laid down on the floor next to the bed. She saw her adorable but frightened face.
She lent her a helping hoof "Don't worry, its alright." she said. But as soon as Fluttershy grabbed it a thunder interrupted and she tried to pull it back quickly while squeaking and whining. However Silence held it so strong that she couldn't.
"Don't worry, it's fine." she continued. Fluttershy slowly came out from her hideout at last. Only then did Silence realize she brought something useful: the earmuffs. "Wait here, I got something for you." she told.
"Okay." Fluttershy replied with a frightened whisper. Silence ran down, grabbed the stuff and ran back up as fast as she could, hoping she won't find the girl under the bed again.
"Look, try these on!" she said while showing her the furry earmuffs. Fluttershy nodded and did so. The big pink accessories fit well the pegasus' mane making her even cuter. She could test them in no time as the little room was lightened up by another thunder. She closed her eyes preparing for the worst... but nothing. Just some low bass waves shook through the place.
Fluttershy suddenly turned all cheerful like Pinkie squealing and clapping her hooves in happiness. Silence just stood there with a lovely smile adoring the yellow pegasus so much. She just felt like giving her a hug so tight it'd probably crush poor Fluttershy. Silence took a paper from the shelf behind and began to imitate writing. Fluttershy got the message and she began to look for a pencil, but she couldn't find any. The gray pegasus began to shake her hooves and threw an invisible dice, then shrugged. Fluttershy chuckled and took a bunch of board games while Silence decided to get the snacks she brought. She drew together the curtains meanwhile so Fluttershy won't be annoyed by the lighting. Unlike Pinkie, she didn't have many games, but that few were enough hook them in for hours.
So much Fluttershy screamed when she noticed the time. "My chickens!" she shouted as she ran opening the door. However when the chilly wind and the cold rain slapped her in the face she shut it.
"Want me to help instead?" Silence recommended while pulling the muffs off Fluttershy's head.
"Umm..."
"Or should we go together? Don't worry I'll keep you safe. I promise." Silence said and winked at the girl.
"Fluttershy looked out the window next to her hesitating. Few seconds later she took a deep breath. "Pinkie Pie promise?" she asked.
Silence raised an eyebrow "What promise?"
"You don't know the Pinkie promise? I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"It's okay, do you accept a Silence promise too?" she asked while smiling.
Fluttershy looked out the window again, seeing a giant thunder striking into the ground far away. She squeaked a little and accepted it whispering "...okay."
"Come, I'll lead the way." Silence said as the frightened little filly stepped next to her with her shivering hooves.
Silence opened the door letting in the storm and also making Fluttershy squeak once more. Silence put her soft wings on her back to protect her from the rain. They slowly but continuously went forward in the awful weather. Every little bit of Fluttershy's body told her to run back but she didn't. Silence's protection and her determination brought her victory. While she was checking the chickens Silence waited for her outside, blocking the rain and wind with her body.
"Done?" she shouted back.
Few seconds later Fluttershy answered "Yes."
Silence stood out of the way and started to shout "Great, run back, run run run!"
Fluttershy fled back to her house, Silence followed her. As they arrived she shut the door. Fluttershy kept wheezing with her pupils small as a pea.
"I'm so proud of you, dear." Silence said "Let me bring the towels this time.".
They dried themselves which was quite hard since Fluttershy had a long, soft tail and mane. Silence finished sooner of course and helped her, which Fluttershy greatly appreciated.
"Go, take a rest now. That was enough adrenaline for today I guess." she suggested.
Fluttershy approved with a nod, put up the earmuffs and took a nap in her bedroom. She needed some time to fall asleep despite it was already dark because of the storm. Silence put the rest of her things she brought back into her bag. She looked out the window, the storm was about to be over as the giant rainclouds took their way towards east. The rain started to give over, the thunderclaps were coming from further away now. She stepped closer to Fluttershy, watching her sleep. She was so adorable, even more adorable than Twilight was. Silence carefully flew over her and sat down on the other side of the bed. She stroked her hoof through Fluttershy's mane that was soft as silk. Her body started to take over as she was petting the sleeping angel getting her eyes filled with passion and adoration. She couldn't stand it anymore, she lost it, her body was not hers anymore. She bent over, her wings folded out as she was about to taste the most delicious roze, that is Fluttershy's blood. But in the last moment, the rest of her mind presence took over, and with a quick move she turned away her head and bit her own hoof releasing the surgery liquid from her fangs right into it. With a few flaps she flew down from the bed, but as soon as she landed she went down like ninepins. She didn't feel her front left foot at all. She started wildly stomping on the ground with it, making the situation somewhat better. Fluttershy woke up due to the noise. Silence didn't even notice her as she grabbed her bag, and probably wouldn't do it afterwards either if Fluttershy remains quiet.
"Are you leaving?" she asked.
Silence turned back with another one of her sweet looks "I'm sorry but I have to. It's getting late.".
Fluttershy looked sad but she still asked "Don't mind if I, um, see you off the premises?".
Silence chuckled "Why would I?".
Fluttershy gave back Silence her earmuffs and they went outside together until the little bridge in front of the house.
"Thank you so much." said Fluttershy turning away her head. She was so shy, she couldn't look in Silence's eyes.
"You're very welcome." she replied. But as she turned around and took a hoofstep forward Flutershy stopped her "Umm...."
Silence turned her head back again "Yes?"
"Could you... um... come next time too, I mean... if that's okay with you?" asked the modest pegasus in a weak voice.
The gray pegasus turned back completely, walked back and hugged her which took the shy pony by surprise "Of course I will, Flushy." she said.
Fluttershy felt a little uncomfortable, not sure if it was because of her new nickname or because Silence hugged her so tight.
But Silence released her for a second to ask "Mind if I call you like that?".
Fluttershy blushed and smiled saying "Um... if you don't hug me so tight next time." then she sounded a little squee as she smiled.
Silence unfolded her arms waiting for Fluttershy. They both ended their day with a heartwarming, friendly hug before Silence went back to the library. But something didn't let her relax the way home. That crack... when she fell on her head in the morning. What was that?
The Sector II - Episode X:
System failure
The night slowly filled the sky with stars. Silence sneaked out after Twilight went to sleep. She flew up high and like some little filly, she started to sort between the houses she'll get her food from. After a while she made her decision. She sneaked in through the window this time, to spare more time. Her next victim was a green unicorn, who probably had nightmares, as she was rolling and shivering on her bed, with the blanket on the floor. That's not good, as Silence needs her victim to stand still. She didn't want the pony to do a quick turn when she's sucking on her neck, making her veins rupture or causing any other serious wounds. Chances were she either calms her down somehow or leaves her. Silence accepted the challenge and with her magic she took up the blanket and covered back the frightened unicorn. Poor, little thing. The fear and stress still covered her emotions. The pegasus took a step forward her and brushed her mane with her hoof, carefully watching out that it won't touch her head. For a bit extra she even sent some subconscious messages to calm her down, despite it seems useless. Eventually, the unicorn grew quiet.
Silence started to begin sucking her blood but after a while she noticed blood drops on the textile. Where did it come from? Silence stopped and as she raised her head she noticed the shed of the problem in the mirror next to her. She was leaking. The blood-holder that is used to backup the system were most likely to be broken. The blood was slowly flowing through the leak, out of the hole in her eye, making her look she's crying bloody tears. Silence began to panic for a moment, but there were no time to waste. She needed a quick yet effective idea. She looked around the room if she can find something useful, while trying to hold the blood back with her hoof. However, the blood started to slowly drool from her other holes, mostly from the ones on her neck and left leg. A little cup lied on the shelf next to her. Perfect. She went back to feed off the pony for a little more, while holding the cup against her cheek. Soon the cup filled with blood and Silence carefully left the house with it.
Now the only thing she needed is to fix that leak. But how? She started to look for the crack with her hoof, but it was too big for her to find it. She truly began to panic now, soaring through the dark sky leaving red drops on the ground, not knowing what to do. Yet when she looked at the cup she held next to herself she got an idea. She grabbed the blood and quickly poured it right into the hole in her eye looking upwards. Then she turned her head down, making all the blood pour back into the cup. This helped her realize how big the problem is. It took a while to the blood to get from A to B so the problem wasn't as big as she thought it is, making the cyborg-pegasus settle down for a bit. She grabbed a leaf from the nearest tree and decided to use it to find the location of the hole. It was in the lower side of the tank.
She flew back to the library and started looking for bandage. The hall was empty of course. Chances were it's either in the bathroom or in Twilight's room. Not taking the risk she headed inside the first one. She opened the door and started to look every little shelf. Or she'd have done so, if she wouldn't have found them in the first place she looked in. The pegasus bandaged the mechanical leak, drank the blood she got and went to wash the rest down. When finished, she was to go back to Twilight's room, but the unicorn waited for her.
"Is everything alright?" she asked.
Silence nodded. Twilight still worried about her though.
"You have nothing to worry about, Twi." told her Silence before they both went back to sleep.
The sun didn't wait this time either. Twilight woke up Silence again, treated her with coffee as usually.
"Well? Are you ready to find a job?" she asked.
"Uhhh... give me a few more hours and I will." the sleepy pegasus replied.
Twilight rolled her eyes. But Silence didn't take her last sentence seriously, she woke up anyway.
"Look, I need to buy a few things at the market. Meanwhile, we can discuss about this." The unicorn said. Silence agreed, since she was quite in lack of ideas. They went out to the street, while Spike stayed at home. As they were chatting a little filly fell into the bush next to them. She was a white unicorn with a light pink, curly mane. They both ran to help her up.
"Are you okay, Sweetie Belle?" asked Twilight.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." she responded, and stood up like nothing has happened.
"What are you doing?" Silence asked questioning the filly's sanity.
"We're just doing acrobatic stunts, Miss. So we can finally get our cutie marks."
"Shouldn't you help at home with the housework or something?" Twilight asked.
"Nah, we have a bunch of things to do Twilight. Besides, Rarity is doing "that" again." Sweetie stated with a little fed up expression.
"That?" Silence asked Twilight.
"I'm not sure what it means, but it doesn't sound good. Let's go!"
As they arrived at Rarity's boutique the situation sounded even worse. Her crying was heard even from the street, making Silence feel awkward a bit. As they entered there she lied, in the middle of the room on her sofa, with an overly dramatic pose. She cried so loud and so much, she literally cried a river there.
"Is everything okay?" Twilight asked.
"Why? Why? WHYYY?! The orders to these fine dresses are almost done, but in the big rush I forgot the emeralds. How can I even finish them in time when I all out of materials."
"(Well, if you keep whining and don't do anything they surely won't be finished.)" noted Silence in herself with a phlegmatic face.
Twilight looked at her with a suspicious smile and look. Her message was clear. Silence came closer to the fashionista.
"I guess I can help you with this problem, if you don't mind my offer." the pegasus said.
"You can?!" asked Rarity as she stopped crying.
"...for a little payment." Silence continued.
Twilight joined her "Silence is saving up for her new home; she's looking for a job."
"Darling, why didn't you tell me? I'm happy to lend you some bits of mine."
"Oh no, I'd prefer to work for my money." she replied.
"Fine, then. Just give me a few seconds. Also, could you bring my cart, it must be upstairs, thank you." Rarity responded while putting back her sofa to it's place.
"Sure thing." Silence flew upstairs and entered Rarity's room. The little red cart was hiding behind the drwing table, and was filled with plans of beautiful dresses. Silence bent down to grab the handle of the cart, but a sudden voice startled her making the pegasus hit her head at the bottom of the table.
It was just Rarity, though noting the pegasus "One more thing, I left my-" but she stopped when she saw the accident and ran for her help "Sweet Celestia, are you alright?" she asked. Silence felt all dizzy and strange, but she was fine.
"I'm extremely sorry. I didn't mean to..." the unicorn apologized.
"It's okay. I'm fine." Silence said. Rarity pulled out the cart with her magic and put its contains on the table. They both went back to the hall ready for treasure hunting.
"Okay, then. I'll show the way." Rarity said as they headed out. Silence bid farewell to Twilight on the street who continued her way to the market afterwards.
After many quiet minutes, when they were out in the dusty mining field Rarity felt like she has to break the leading silence "So, you're moving from Twilight? Are you moving from town too?".
Silence responded "No, just a few houses away. The one Blossomforth is moving from."
"I see. Here is the plan: I detect the gems in the ground with my magical horn and mark the place you have to dig at."
"Sure thing."
And so Rarity began to "scan" through the ground with her horn looking for gemstones, while humming a song. At times she stopped it though, when she found something. Then she marked the place and continued. Silence didn't have to dig much deep for the treasures. She put the jewels she found all in the cart. After a while, when the unicorn was much before her, she decided to ease on her job. She waited for the moment Rarity didn't look and simply ripped out the gems from the ground under her. But something went wrong. When Silence tried to secretly use her magic to get the gems, she saw her holographic mask from her hoof fading in and out while distorting. While this seemed bad already, she also lost much power. No choice but to do the work by hoof.
However after about ten minutes the unicorn went to her saying "Could you dig out that few more I marked, I have a few more things to prepare."
Ironically, that "few more" was at least a fifty, but Silence got some rest. She waited for Rarity to disappear then after looking around she revealed her true form and started to take the jewelry. It was much easier this time, now that the upholding of her hologram didn't eat up all her energy. It took her much less time now and she filled up the entire cart after a while. The sun was already slowly sliding down.
"Wow, that was fast." Rarity noted as Silence arrived at the boutique. She was still doing those preparations, levitating fabrics and scissors and the measure tape.
The dresses on the mannequins were almost done, but still much was missing from them.
"Was it? Well, thanks." said the gray pony.
"Oh, no. I'm the one who's grateful. Without you I'd be doomed."
"I hope you don't mind if I brought some other gems too. Since your X was really close to it." she asked.
"Not at all, darling. I'm sure I can find a place for those too." the unicorn replied. But in all of a sudden she stopped and put down everything.
"About the payment...." she stepped close to the pegasus. "... I'm only able to give it when I'm done with these." she said pointing at the half-done dresses.
"Sure, take your time." Silence replied with a friendly smile.
"Oh, thank you, thank you." Rarity said.
"I won't bother you, then." said Silence before she left the room.
"See you later."
"See ya."
After they both bid farewell Silence flew back to the library where Twilight was already waiting for her.
"Nah, how was it going?" the unicorn asked.
"Everything went smoothly. I wish we could have chit-chat a little more. I wonder how those clothes will look like."
"As I know her they sure will be wonderful, and that she'll pay your services generously." Twilight said.
Silence didn't respond to this. Yet, the unicorn continued cheerfully "Are you hungry? I did something special for dinner. Special because I cooked it for the first time. But I did everything by the book.".
Silence shrugged and replied "Why not?". Surprisingly, it turned out Twilight is quite good in the kitchen. The sun was about to go down, when Spike began to heave in all of a sudden. Twilight and Silence went there to help, but he only barfed up a letter. It was tied with a red ribbon and a golden seal. Twilight unfolded the scroll with her magic and began to read it.
"My most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
Long time we've met with each other in person. Even longer I haven't met my subjects in Ponyville. Unfortunately, until now I had little time to see how life is going outside the castle. I'd love to pay a visit tomorrow in order to break this. Would you mind informing all the citizens of my arrival? I have no doubt in your skills about leadership and organization.
I'm looking forward to meet you all.
Princess Celestia."
Twilight's face filled with joy. She squealed and jumped around from happiness shouting "The princess will come tomorrow, the princess will come tomorrow.". However her happiness suddenly turned into panic "The princess will come tomorrow?!". She started to freak out, pacing up and down.
"We have to make her arrival royal. She can't see the town like THIS?"
Silence looked out the window, she didn't understand why all the fuss "Like what?"
Twilight teleported up to her face and stared deep in her eyes "Like what?! Like this! It's the princess of Equestria we're talking about. She'd expect to see ribbons on the buildings and desert at her arrival, not litter on the street." she said while pointing out to the street.
"That's just a branch on the road."
"What if she thinks I'm lazy to organize a feast to her arrival? What if I disappoint her? She'll send me back to Canterlot to prove I'm still able to be her student."
Silence started to get confused. "Calm down, Twilight. I think she didn't ask you to-" but the unicorn didn't listen. Instead she ran out with the letter to gather the ponies together in order to begin the preparations for the princess' arrival.
Here comes the princess (Part 1)
The Sector II: Episode XI
Here comes the princess! (Part 1)
Twilight nervously ran out the library, but when Spike thought he can go to sleep now she came back.
"Come on, Spike!" she shouted.
"Ugh, okay." answered the dragon.
The sky almost completely faded to black. The clock just passed 22:00. Silence was alone now, which was a great opportunity to read the books. But something didn't let her mind stop. The pegasus was into something.
"(If there'd be a way... to analyze the princess. Her weak spots, her strength, everything.)" she thought. Silence took a book she brought and opened it, however the dust inside made her eyes and nose itch and she started to sneeze. A second later something popped up in front of her out of nowhere. It was some kind of menu, a control panel for the system. It was half-transparent with a white border and texts on it. Silence got shocked.
"(Oookay. I don't know how I did that.)" she said in herself. The panel contained all kinds of things like "Settings", "Save to hard drive", "Encryption" and even a red one with the text "Take out".
"(Let's go to theee Help. How do I click on it?)" Silence tried a quick wink at first, which surprisingly worked. The Help panel really helped. It was really descriptive about the... about everything really. But in the middle of her studies of, er, herself, a voice sounded from the street, Twilight's voice to be correct.
"Listen everypony! I've just got a letter from Princess Celestia." The ponies headed to the unicorn for that. Even Silence looked out the window.
"The princess will pay a visit tomorrow, so we have to make sure to give her the right reception. This might be our one and only chance to impress the princess, as she's busy with her work. We can't fail now, or else she might never come back. Remember last time she visited?" A giant gasping wave shocked through the citizens.
Twilight's panicking voice and unintentional exaggeration did her work. The entire Ponyville began to freak out as they only had a night to make everything ready.
However, Twilight stopped them "No need to panic! With well-organized work and enough will we'll surely make it." the unicorn then started to give out the tasks for each pony, who went to finish it afterwards. Twilight's skill in leadership amazed Silence. Long time she didn't see such a quickly yet efficiently working team. Twilight would sure make a nice strategist general, she thought.
But she needed to focus now, as such a great opportunity can't be missed. She was heading back to look for a proper spell in the book, however she decided to make a cup of coffee before. Not for herself, for Twilight of course. Some minutes later she began her own search between the spells.
Meanwhile Twilight was strolling through the town nervously with Spike on her back.
"Great job Rose! The flowers fit there perfectly." she said to a dark red-maned earth pony, who was decorating the town hall. But Rose was tired, she kept yawning before and after thanking the unicorn. Although the yawning was infectious like a bad disease, making Twilight start it too, that didn't stop her to continue. But as she trotted around the situation began to become a bit desperate. The ponies who were to tie the trees together with ribbons fell asleep. Well, only one of them, who her mate tried to wake up. One of them was an earth pony, while the one laying on the ground was a unicorn.
"Bon Bon what happened?" she asked.
After a yawn Bon Bon answered "She felt asleep, I don't know when. I tried to wake her up but..." but instead of finishing it, she just gave Twilight the gapes. The unicorn sprinkled Lyra with a little ice-cold water magically coming out of her horn, who instantly woke up for that. Twilight, as she saw it working also sprinkled Bon Bon with some.
"Keep up the good work." she told them, while galloping away to keep the ponies' eyes open. She showered everyone who fell asleep, she snapped a little from the stress. The unicorn took her way to the Sugarcube Corner where she found Mr. and Mrs. Cake working hard on the cake while leaving Pinkie sleeping in the table. Time for another dose of magic. But as her horn began to glow Spike grabbed it and shouted.
"Watch it, Twilight! You gonna get all the cupcakes wet!"
"Oh, thanks Spike. But where did you come from?" she asked
"I was on your back all along." answered the dragon with deeper tone. "Twilight you doesn't look good..." he continued but Spike's worries turned into echoing meaningless noises. Twilight was like a zombie now, she had wrinkles under her eyes, mouth dropped open, her vision was blurry and she was fighting with the guillotine of her eyelids. Luckily Mrs. Cake came before she fell on the floor and helped her to the wall.
"Spike, bring a cup from the table!" she told the dragon who did so without a word. The cup was filled with coffee, a really strong one, and it wasn't the only cup. They made the unicorn drink the contents who woke up like someone who just got slapped in the face. It really was a strong coffee indeed. As Twilight woke up she also realized the best solution to keep things going: the coffee.
"Wake up Pinkie!" she said while pouring it down the pink pony's throat.
Pinkie jumped up and screamed "Eww, not this, not coffee!" she shook her head to make the uncomfortable taste disappear.
"Pinkie doesn't like coffee, Twilight. That's why we didn't gave her already." Mrs. Cake told the unicorn. Twilight made an awkward chuckle hearing that. She probably didn't see it coming. But now she had a plan at least, and the first thing she had to do is to get back to the library.
Silence angrily smashed the book to the wall there. None of the books contained the spell she wanted, making her goal to get to know Celestia's weakness seem unreachable. But she still had a plan B: If she can't find a spell, she'll make one. She hid the book back under her bed sponge and went downstairs, just at the moment Twilight arrived. Of course, the first thing she noticed was the pegasus.
"Oh, hello Silence." the purple pony said.
"Hi Twilight, I made you some coffee. It's-"
"Perfect job. We just need like twenty more.". Twilight truly went crazy now.
Silence raised an eyebrow, as she got all confused, yet followed the unicorn to the kitchen. Twilight started the coffee machine while explaining her plan.
"So I was thinking, if the refreshing water doesn't work now, I needed to find something different, but when Spike told me what he saw in the Sugarcube Corner I knew the perfect way to keep Ponyville awake. I'll patrol around the town giving coffee to the ones who need, isn't it perfect?"
"Uuh, yeah." said the pegasus awkwardly. She kind of started to worry about Twilight, though. She looked at the clock hanging on the wall from the corner of her eye. It was very late, 1:30 AM now.
The unicorn made a few more cups of coffee, then poured them into some flasks she just got from the shelf meanwhile. When she finished Twilight was to run out fulfill her mission when Silence stopped her for a second "Twilight, one more thing. Where can I find the clairvoyance spells?".
"Shelf D, third row, blue book with the gold text, bye." she answered while dashing out with the flasks without even thinking about why a pegasus would ask such thing. She was in such a big hurry she left the door open and the coffee machine on, which Silence had to turn off as well as closing the door. Twilight and Spike -who were waiting outside all along separated ways to cover a bigger area, leaving the pegasus alone once again.
She took the book her friend just mentioned and looked for the spell, which she found easily. She took the book upstairs and began to ponder on how to modify it to her own needs.
"(Okay, first of all let's just try it out)" she though. Turning her dazzle off, she tried to cast it. A white light emitted from the hole in her left eye as she started. As she casted the spell a small orb shaped projectile flew through the room, making all the objects seen through it look all distorted, before hitting the wooden wall. The whole thing didn't last for a second, yet it was mysterious and beautiful. As soon as the orb hit the wall, Silence saw it. She saw everything of it, the little cracks, the reeds, like if you'd see a piece of wood through a microscope.
"(Awesome, the book says it lasts as long as I don't break it or run out of magical energy. That's just what I needed.)". She broke the spell as her horn stopped glowing, then continued her monologue "(Hmmm... If I remember correctly, my fangs do have a sensor too, in case I'd like to analyze blood or something. If I could link that to my horn...)".
The theory sounded promising, but it was somewhat off. Linking a default mana energy output to another wasn't hard for her as she did that a numerous times. Question was if she can link it to something does not serve that purpose. Turned out the answer is a "Yes", however this had a serious drawback. As Silence shot the spell again, from her mouth this time the orb was much smaller than before. Even though she gained significant amount of data of the wood now, the orb was not large enough to cover up an alicorn. There was only one way to solve this: Black magic.
"(If I infuse the spell with black magic instead of normal one, that might be enough to recover the lost energy.)" she thought.
"(Better not try it now, if it goes the wrong way...)" but instead of finishing she just gave out a deep sigh. For now, she decided to look for something else. Well, someone else. After taking a look at the clock - that just hit the 2:00 A.M she flew outside via the balcony and raked through the streets.
Meanwhile, Twilight's world was falling into pieces outside. She couldn't handle the amount tired ponies. Most of them finished or gave up and went to sleep already. Twilight desperately teleported from one place to another to keep the ponies awake, but she was running out of coffee. After the last drop left her flask, the unicorn's world collapsed.
"Everypony, please... we must finish... there's not much... just a few more..." she cried for help in despair. Her eyes were surrounded by wrinkles and they were all red and bloodshot, her head felt all dizzy, she didn't see anything clearly now and her movements were completely unstable. Few more seconds later she dropped down on the ground. A few more words left her mouth "Please.... a bit more.... please." then her eyes shut.
Didn't take long to Silence to find her. The situation shocked the pegasus.
"Twilight." she said poking the unicorn. "Oh, damn what the hell did you do?"
She grabbed the overstrained little pony, put her on her back and took her home. Twilight was moaning during the way to the library, yet her moans were not understandable. The pegasus took her up to the bedroom in the library, where Spike was already sleeping. This kind of irked Silence but she didn't really care about him now. She put the unicorn in her bed, the bed sheets on her and took a look at the clock, that shown 2:17. She turned back to Twilight and gently pet her coat with her hoof.
"Sleep now dear, you deserve it." she said while looking out the window. The streets were beautifully decorated. So much ribbons, well-placed flowers, signs. Silence was proud to Twilight, yet she still worried about her friend. However what mostly filled up the little pony's heart was nothing else but pure love.
Here comes the princess (Part 2)
The Sector II: Episode XII
Here comes the princess! (Part 2)
"(Uhg, what is that sound? Trumpets?)" Said Silence as she woke up for the sound that slowly faded in. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. It was 12:03 already. Silence gasped as both she and Twilight were late.
"Twilight! Twilight!" she tried waking up her friend who slowly opened her eyes at first, but when she noticed the things outside she began to panic.
Princess Celestia has arrived. The streets were filled with the melody of the royal trumpets following her. Two musicians behind and two bodyguards in front of her. The princess' face was filled with amazement as she walked down the wonderfully decorated streets. But something was missing. Where are all the ponies? She didn't know she was the one who woke up Ponyville today. The citizens one by one ran out to greet the princess. Twilight and Silence also went out and just everyone else, they followed Celestia to the town hall where she was to hold a speech. She stood up to the podium gracefully and almost started, but when she saw all the sleepy, tired, yawning ponies, she chuckled. Her horn began to fill up with magic and suddenly all the equines around gave out a huge gape, letting a giant grey smoke out from their mouth, which gathered up in the princess' horn, that released a small yellow magical blast with a popping sound afterwards. For that everyponies' eyes opened up. The exhaustion left leaving no trace, and all felt so fresh and active. Seeing her subjects are now capable of paying attention she began speaking.
"Citizens of Ponyville. I'm very humbled I had time to pay a visit here. I didn't even imagine to see your town so wonderful like the way it is now, and for this surprise I'm grateful. My attendance however won't last long, but I'm absolutely sure my heart will be full of joy the time being. As usually, I'll be holding a smaller feast later on in the Sugarcube Corner. Until then I'd like everypony to take their time getting ready for the ceremony."
The ponies cheered and stomped on the ground lively and cheerfully, then went home full of excitement. Celestia as she started to look for someone heard a voice she knows so much: Twilight's.
"Princess Celestia!" she shouted.
"Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student.". They clung together as their necks gently snuggled up to each others.
"I'm so glad I can see you again." the princess added.
Twilight looked back to introduce her new friend to her teacher, but Silence disappeared.
"Come, we have lots of things to talk about." Celestia suggested. Twilight accepted the invitation, but decided not to talk about Silence, rather keep her as a surprise. The student and her teacher went to the park afterwards.
Celestia took another look around, watching the beautiful scenery.
"It's beautiful Twilight. However I need to ask: Why?"
"You're a princess. It's our job to welcome such a royal person the proper way."
"I'm humbled, but I asked for nothing like that. I appreciate your enthusiasm very much, but sometimes you're pushing too hard. You need to learn how to relax, my student." Celestia said while smiling at her.
Twilight didn't respond to her, just smiled back. They arrived to the park, laid down on the grass and began chit-chat about how things were going... all alone.
Meanwhile, Silence went back to the library to case the joint. "(Okay, Celestia said she'll be at the Sugarcube Corner, which means....)" she ran out to the balcony where she could see the backyard of it, which also had tables to the ponies who prefer eating outside. It was not that far and Silence was able to hit the princess if she aims correctly. It was not a question if Celestia will be outside, since the sky was clear as a new window and the Cakes were ordering the tables, chairs and checking the decorations. The stage was set, now only the actress was missing. Like a spider waiting for its food she was waiting for the alicorn, making emergency plans and worst case scenarios meanwhile. In all of a sudden, the door opened downstairs. Twilight came home all excited towards the upcoming feast, excited, but also nervous. She didn't know what she should wear. The pegasus calmed her down telling her she looks fine as she is. About twenty minutes later the citizens started to gather up and the princess appeared on the street as well.
"Don't you come?" the unicorn asked Silence.
"I have a few more things to do. Just go on, I'll catch up later." she replied.
"Okay. Sure thing." Twilight said with a little sad tone.
Silence, like a careful assassin waited for the best moment to strike from the edge of the balcony and Twilight's room. She stood up on her back hooves as she nestled up the wall she sneaked along. She was only peeking out from the corner since she tried to avoid detection as much as possible. Minutes later Princess Celestia thanked Ponyville for coming and the feast began. Celestia was a clear target as she had her own table and almost nopony was walking around. Only the Cakes were serving her the tea at times.
"(Wait for it, wait for it....)" Silence timed her shot to hit the princess right after her tea was served. She charged up her - now black magic driven spell, which had notably bigger power than before.
"(...wait for it, wait for it....)" she repeated in herself while holding her fire with her mouth all open, and when she saw the perfect time, she blew the spell right towards the princess.
The distorted field was way bigger this time indicating the power of the spell. The princess was about to sip in her tea not suspecting the thing coming towards her. As she picked up the cup a gigantic chill went down her spine, making her drop the cup. The feeling was horrible, even afterwards she felt the cold wind gently blowing between her feet. Even though it didn't last for a blink of eye it seemed like minutes. But then something unsuspected happened. As the teacup landed on the table, making the tea pour on the textile Celestia instantly turned her head to her right, right towards the library's balcony. Silence quickly turned back, slamming her body to wall and wheezing. Her eyes were smaller than a pea and her body was shaking from fright.
"(The hell was that?! Did she just....?!)" the pegasus though. She tried to calm herself down, with no success. This can't be said about her shot, though, the raw, unsorted data were overwhelming her system, making it work with full power. Silence not only heard but also felt the mechanics working inside her head, as well as she felt the hot air coming out from her holes. This went on for like five minutes then stopped. She, to make sure checked her "loot" anyway, and everything seemed right. The data was raw, unsorted and uncompressed, but she had time cleaning it up so she left it the way it is. Eventually, she calmed down and since Twilight was waiting for her, she had to go to the feast as well. She took a deep breath and headed to the Sugarcube Corner. The way down the street seemed like to take a hour despite it was just a few seconds away. The ponies were filling the building not only outside but inside too as there were a wide range of sweets, games and of course music. The pegasus recognized a few one quickly: the mare with the cello - who played wonderfully in the backyard, the one with the nightmares drinking with her friend and Blossomforth of course also had fun playing some kind of game she seemed really good at.
As she looked around inside, a voice called her she knows. It was Rarity, in a very elegant dress she made.
"Silence, darling. I was looking for you high and low."
"Oh, hi Rarity." she greeted her back with a friendly smile.
"Where were you for so long? I'd like to show you something."
Silence had no idea what it could be, but she followed her anyway. Whatever keeps her away from Celestia. Rarity led her out from there into her boutique.
"What are we doing here exactly?" she asked in confusion.
"Tada!" the unicorn said while gracefully pointing at a dress in a mannequin. It was a black dress filled with frills at its edge decorated by a silver ribbon around the waist, a number of jewels at the back of it, around the corset, netfish stockings and also black shoes also came with it as well as pretty headband. "How is it? I haven't made such dark styled clothes for so long."
"Looks wonderful, Rarity." the pegasus answered.
"Remember when I said I can't give you the payment right away?" she said while throwing her mane in the air.
"Uh, yes? Wait, no way..."
"Remember when I said I surely will be able to find a place for those gems?" she said looking at Silence with a quite naughty look.
"NO WAY!!"
Rarity chuckled and nodded "Mhm, it's all yours."
Silence looked at her gift, then back. "Rarity, I can't take it!" refused the pegasus.
"Oh, don't be so shy. You worked for it so hard, and you're really in the need of money." the unicorn said while slowly coming closer to her. She put her hoof on Silence's back and said "This is a single model. You can't find it anywhere else, this is what makes it so special... and expensive, if you know what I mean."
Silence took another good look at her dress.
"Thank you, Rarity! I.... I don't even..."
"Oh hush, that's what are friends for, darling." the unicorn replied sweetly. "Just go and try it on."
Silence did so without a word. The dress was fitting on her perfectly, the black gothic-lolita style matched the grey coated mare very well, making its creator amazed. Rarity brought the mirror and showed the pegasus to herself "Aren't you a doll?" she asked.
Silence adored her gift so much, no words could have described how grateful she was. Instead, she turned around and without any warning she hugged her friend, whose face blushed a bit. Rarity didn't mind her though, she was happy Silence likes it.
"I'll take it to the library if you don't mind." said Silence as she'd hurry somewhere. Well, of course she did, she wanted to show it to Twilight, or at least that's what Rarity though.
"But of course, it's yours now." the unicorn replied, but before her friend could open the door she shouted after her "Wait!". Rarity ran upstairs and some seconds later she came back with a black umbrella.
"Hold it for a second." she said as she gave the pegasus the accessory "Turn around...." she continued. The look was truly indescribable. "It's fabulous!"
The pegasus smiled back then after a farewell she left.
Silence took her dress to the library, but she found someone else along with Twilight. It was Princess Celestia, paying a visit to the home of her most faithful student. Twilight was happily welcomed the surprised pony "Silence!"
"Hi Twilight! Princess Celestia!" she bowed down before her highness.
Twilight excitedly revealed her surprise "Princess she is Silence. She is my newest friend, who's currently living here with Me." she looked at her and said "I love your new dress."
"Thanks." Answered Silence.
Princess Celestia smiled at her student "It's nice to see you progress my student." then she looked at Silence. Her look was already giving the feeling that she is suspecting something.
"What an interesting cutie mark." she complimented. Silence didn't know what the princess was talking about for a blink of an eye, but then she realized it was her brand she gave a compliment for. Her "cutie mark" was interesting indeed: some sort of circular black symbol which is hard to describe properly, if it's even possible. Twilight took a look at it too, since she didn't really care about that before.
"Thank you kindly, your highness." answered the pegasus. "Where is Spike by the way?" she asked noticing the peace around.
"He is at the party, you know like.... everypony else." Twilight responded.
"Look Twilight, it was such a wonderful day we've spent together, but I'm afraid I have to take my leave." apologized the princess.
"Too bad, if only you could keep the sun up for some more." Twilight said making Celestia smile at her so sweetly, so lovely that her student felt like she got the most wonderful teacher ever.
Then the ruler of Equestria turned towards Silence, lowered her head, getting it really close to hers and said "Who knows, maybe one day we get to know each other even better."
She headed out to the street where her carriage was waiting for her. She turned back once more "Until your next letter." then with a graceful flap she flew up to her wagon and flew away. Silence and Twilight was waving after her with a smile on their faces.
"Isn't she the most wonderful pony, ever?" asked the unicorn as she felt like she could shed a tear from joy.
"(Maybe, but why do I feel that she knows too much?)" thought Silence. They both went back to the library, but instead of reading or doing some kind of work, Twilight decided to daydream on the balcony, while gazing at the sunset. Silence put her new clothes on her bed and after staring at the unicorn for a few seconds, she sat next to her best friend. After a few seconds of daydreaming Twilight felt like she need to confess something.
"You know. I haven't really though about it so far, but now...."
"About what, exactly?" Silence questioned.
Twilight turned towards her, her purple eyes sparkled like gemstones trapping the attention of the pegasus in their black cages, from where there seemed like there is no escape.
"...your cutie mark." she added.
Silence's blood ran cold. Her pupils became small again and her face turned pale. She turned her head away a moment later while covering her brand with her tail. She felt embarrassed, and didn't want to talk about it. Twilight got surprised a bit, but felt sympathy towards her friend and changed topic.
"Wanna go back to the party? I am sure Pinkie topped up the moral." she asked.
"Only with you, Twilight." the pegasus replied.
They smiled at each other and after a last look at the ending sunset they went back to party with their friends.
Meanwhile a carriage arrived at the castle of Canterlot, where blue hooves were making noises. It was Princess Luna nervously waiting for her sister. As it landed she ran up to Celestia.
"Elder sister did you-"
"feel that? Yes, I did." The two ponies began to walk back to the castle. Luna felt quite desperate and scared, while her sister was serious and straight.
"Could it be that....you know...." Luna asked.
Celestia gave out a sigh "I hope not."
They walked back to the castle, silently, lost in their thoughts.
The Sector II: Episode XIII
Trickster
"Are you sure you want to sell it?" asked Twilight.
"I have no choice. Even if I do so, I'll still lack of bits to buy that house, and Blossomforth is moving in two days." Silence replied. Both of them were a bit sad they get to bid farewell to the new dress, but it had to be done.
"Okay, I'll inform Mayor Mare to hold an auction for it. Oh, by the way I found a good workplace to you in the newspaper." told the unicorn, catching her friend's attention. She grabbed a newspaper with her magic and showed the encircled part to Silence.
"A... rock farm?" she asked in her surprise.
"It's a hard work but it pays quite well. Especially now, they say they lack of workforce." added Twilight.
"Anybody there you might know?" questioned the pegasus.
Twilight shook her head, but in all of a sudden something came up in her mind "I don't, but I know somepony who does." she replied.
"Come on Fluttershy! Here comes the best part." said Pinkie while excitedly kept jumping up and down.
"Yes.....but.....can we.....make.....a little..... break too?" answered Fluttershy who kept wheezing and was literally barely able to hold herself on her hooves. She was sweating really much and when she got to Pinkie she just collapsed on the ground.
"Pinkie Pie! Fluttershy!" shouted Silence from above "Doing sporty things I see." she added.
"Mhm, wanna join us?" the pink pony asked. The two ponies were jogging in the outskirts of Ponyville. Pinkie Pie in her black-turquoise training outfit and a nice set of head- and hoofbands, while Fluttershy was wearing a white and pink set of those, a white shirt and a black bloomer.
"No thanks, I'd actually like to ask something." the pegasus said.
"Ask something?" Pinkie responded.
"Twilight said you have some relations with the rock farm near Ponyville. Could you-"
Pinkie Pie gasped in surprise "The rock farm?" she started to hop around "I grew up there, it was so much fun. I've made it fun, that's how I earned my cutie mark. Those were my first parties ever in my life." and as she finished she stopped the strange movements and adding "Good times. Why did you ask?"
"I'm looking for work there." she answered turning her face away a bit.
"Oh I'm sure Inkie will have some, she is a really really really nice pony."
"Well, I hope so, thanks for the info."
"Good luck there." Pinkie said then turned to her pal who still laid on the ground. "Break time is over Fluttershy, race to your cottage!" and she began to skip towards leaving her behind. Silence helped her up and they moved on their way.
As Silence arrived at the farm, the landscape turned all gloomy, the environment kept creating that cold, depressing feel with its cold rocks and few naked trees. She went past a little mobile wagon that seemed kind of abandoned, as she headed towards the now visible farm. The pegasus arrived at last, looked over the fence, at the land where was not a soul but rocks only. She went to the house next to it. It seemed empty too, but from a corner an old stallion appeared. He seemed robust, serious and determined.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Hello! I'm Silence. I'm here for the job." she answered.
The stranger dropped his taunting tone and apologized "Oh, the job. Terribly sorry, I thought it's another ruffian was about to burglar into the house."
"I see. So about the job..."
He gave out a sigh "Yes, I'm glad somepony is at last helps us. Look, you can begin your job right away, just speak to Inkie in the backyard. She is in charge of things now. Go, meet her in the backyard."
Silence nodded and went out to see the girl. Inkie was living up to her name really, both her mane, tail and coat were various shades of grey. Strangely, she had no cutie mark on her backside. She was rolling the rocks into a pile when she noticed the stranger.
"Hey, you!" she shouted, making Silence stop. Inkie was going for the pickaxe not far away from her, while keeping her hostile eyes on the pegasus and shouting "Hey dad, got another one!".
"Don't worry dear, she is our new employee." a voice replied from the house.
"New employee?!" she asked shocked. She also turned gentle in a sudden. "I'm sorry for that, it's just-"
"Ruffians?" Silence asked. Inkie nodded then took up a serious tune. "Look, there are me, you and the other new girl working here. Your job will be to help her breaking those rocks on the other side of the yard. You've probably seen it the way here. Here take the pick and get moving." she told then turned around to continue her work.
Silence nodded, yet felt like asking "What is that with the ruffians, by the way?"
Inkie turned back and angrily responded "It's none of your business." then went to finish her job.
The pegasus did what she was told to do, grabbed the pickaxe and went to the place looking for that other girl. She heared voices and noises from a distance luring her that way. It was a blue unicorn sweating extremely, hitting the rocks hard with the wrong end of the pick.
"Hello." the pegasus greeted her. The stranger didn't greet her back just looked at her, then continued her work.
Silence lowered her eyebrow and switched her tone to a deeper one "Look, there are like three of us working here and this place is likely to be filled with thugs, so I'd appreciate to work as a team instead of behaving like some old grumpy mare."
The stranger gave out a sigh "Fine... Hi!"
"I'm Silence." introduced herself the pegasus.
"Trixie." the blue pony replied as they began their work.
"You know about these thugs, they're talking about?" asked Silence.
"Don't mind them, they can defend themselves. And if not, they still have Trixie here." she answered.
"Uh, Trixie, try the other end of the pickaxe."
"Don't tell Trixie what to do!" she shouted in anger. Even though Silence held the pick in her mouth, she was still faster then the unicorn. However, after a few minutes Silence start to feel that again. She knew what's going to happen, yet she was too weak to do anything. She tried to walk away dizzily but at the next rock she collapsed on the ground.
Trixie decided to tease her a little "Tired already? Hah, you're-" but as the pegasus began to couch up the blood she stoned. Screaming for help Trixie ran away while Silence - for the first time couldn't stand up after the change. The system lost a lot of blood and even the bandage couldn't hold it much as the mechanics began to work. The oil-less machine shut down and fainted.
Inkie was horrified as she arrived. She had to do something quick. "Take her to your wagon!" she said.
"But your house is-"
"I can't let dad see this. Take her to that thing of yours while I clean up this mess."
Trixie didn't like the idea but she did it anyway. The unicorn picked her up and took her to her home. However on the way there the pegasus recovered. Trixie laid her on the ground slowly and spoke to her.
"Hey, hey, are you okay?"
Silence nodded. She felt completely weak and helpless, and her eyes almost shut again when Trixie slapped her saying "Hey, don't leave me girl!".
Silence this time was able to move, and slowly but she was able to stand up. But something was different; she noticed a counter on her top-right corner of her eye. It wasn't counting yet, just seemed like turned off. Despite that she knew what that meant: she has a limited time left before running dry.
"Don't worry, we don't hurry anywhere." Trixie calmed her. They waited for a few more seconds until Silence was able to move normally. As she did so the counter started counting back. The pegasus had about 5 hours before passing away. The circumstances were downright against her but she didn't have much to do, so she followed Trixie. She though the worst case is that she'll have to kill, then run. But for now Silence were patiently waiting, ignoring the clock.
Few minutes later they arrived at the wagon she passed by some time ago. With giant red letters the following word was written on it: "LOSER". She didn't seem to mind it that much though.
Trixie unlocked the magically sealed door and she helped her fellow in. "Feeling alright?" she asked.
"Yeah... I'm fine." Silence answered. As she looked around, the place was quite comfy despite being so little. All kinds of stars and lollipop-looking signs decorated the walls. There were many small shelves and cupboards completely empty and a table there as well as a little window too. But Trixie seemed sad, something didn't her rest, which Silence quickly noticed. She kept her mouth shut, though and instead began to look around the room. She spotted something fallen behind a cupboard, which she picked up quickly. It was a picture of Trixie herself posing with a bouquet alongside the text: "The Great and Powerful Trixie.".
She didn't even check the photo properly but its owner madly took it out from her hooves "Give me that!". She opened the door and threw the picture out with all her might.
"Don't touch Trixie's stuff, okay?" she said.
"(What was that? And why is she speaking in third person?)" the pegasus thought in confusion. "(Is that....?)"
"Trixie what is that knife for?" she asked while pointing at the knife on the cupboard next to her bed.
"It's.... for self-defense." she answered.
Silence lowered her eyebrows "(I doubt that... considering what was on that picture, she surely went though a lot of things recently. Hmmm.... I could use that to my advantage.)"
"Look, thank you so much for your help, Great and Powerful Trixie." she thanked, but hearing those words just made the unicorn more unrestful. Yet she kept her temper this time.
"Trixie abandoned that title a long time ago." she said. Her face was truly filled with depression now, but her cold heart refused to tell anything more. Silence didn't want to miss this chance, a new ally was served on a dish, she just had to grab that opportunity.
"Look, I know you must have been through a lot of things. Let me help you." she said, but Trixie just turned away, she didn't want to talk about it.
"There is no use of holding a grudge. Everybody can get a second chance, it's up to you to fix it."
"YOU KNOW NOTHING!" Trixie screamed up crying as she grabbed the knife and with magic she held it to her head. "My life is in ruins, I'm just a humiliated laughing stuff who has nothing. Do you even know how does that feel?!" she continued.
Silence lowered her tone "Then... This is a game you can only win.". Trixie lowered her knife in surprise of that.
"Now what? Don't you end it? Do it! Fold when you have the winning cards! Quit and then regret it when it's too late. I'm not stopping you..." Silence continued closing her eyes.
Trixie couldn't believe it, she looked at the knife, then dropped it and ended up crying.
"Ssshh.... It's alright. Tell me everything, I'll be here to help." she said in her usual voice while hugging the sobbing unicorn.
"(Perfect. I've broken her, time for reconstruction.)"
The pegasus cleared her face from the tears. Trixie rubbed her eyelids for a little then laid down on her bed facing towards the wall and began to confess.
"I used to be a magician, a traveling magician. I was traveling from town to town showing off my abilities to make out a living, until I arrived at Ponyville." she said. Her voice was still so weak.
"Yes?" asked the pegasus.
"Ponyville was the first place was I was beaten. I admit, I went too far with that Ursa Major thing, but I never thought that two idiots would ever bring one here."
"So you bit more then you could chew, eh? Want happened afterwards?"
Trixie as she started to recall things one by one almost began to cry again "Twilight Sparkle... she took care of that thing I couldn't. Then I've become nothing but a laughing stuff. Everywhere I went.... then I ended up here. I lost my mind, I wanted revenge for something that I have made. But Twilight beat me again, after terrorizing the town with that stupid amulet..... I ran away, and now I'm here, hated by everypony." she still fought with her tears even afterwards.
"(Poor thing.....)" "Look, everybody deserves a second chance, if they forgave that two idiots you were talking about, they'll sure forgive you too." she said patting the unicorns back.
"They will?" she asked back.
"I'm sure they'll understand your point of view too." the pegasus said. "I've met so many, so many wonderful, generous and kind ponies so far. Believe me, they'll surely give you another-"
But the sentence was interrupted by knocks on the door. It was Inkie, calling them out. Seeing both of them relieved the gray mare, but she asked anyway "Are you okay?".
"Yes, I'm fine." answered Silence.
Inkie sighed "I don't know what that was, but it didn't happen, okay?"
"Okay." the employees answered.
"Fine, now lets finish those few rocks left and that's it for now."
Trixie sealed the door back, and the three ponies went back to finish what they've begun.
The Sector II: Episode XIV
No time for apoloiges
After finishing the work on the farm Inkie happily looked around the yard.
"Whooh, look at those piles. Look at that empty space. I've never thought I'll ever manage to see this."
Silence smiled and added "I'm glad. We made a pretty nice team didn't we? Though we couldn't finish it this quickly without Trixie." she said while looking at her.
"Trixie is also pleased with your work." the unicorn said.
"Fine, I'll pay you up and then everypony can get home." Inkie said. They went back to the house where they got their payment. It wasn't much but more then enough for Silence. After they bid farewell to the grey mare, they headed back to the wagon.
"So, will you go back to Ponyville?" the pegasus asked.
Trixie nodded "Yes, I need to face with what I've done. Even if they throw me out...."
"They won't." calmed her Silence. Trixie led her into her home, that suddenly magically began to move on its own straight towards Ponyville, well, Trixie were moving it actually. At the border of Ponyville Trixie stopped the wagon and went out the street.
"Where are you going?" asked the pegasus.
"Trixie has to take the matter in her own hooves now." she answered "Thanks for everything.".
Silence nodded. "Good luck." And she flew straight towards the library.
She had about twenty minutes left, but she knew what to do in case of emergency, so she didn't panic. She flew in Twilight's room and began to look for that potion she got from Zecora, the one that can erase one's latest memories. It was hidden behind the wardrobe. However, instead of saving it up for a last-minute plan, she decided to use it up right away. Not on herself of course, but on somepony who is almost alone, somepony who she just got known. Not wasting her time she flew out as fast as possible heading towards the place she came from few minutes ago.
Meanwhile Trixie was heading down the street, taking a bath in the sea of the shame she caused. They still held a grudge against her, it was clear. Though that didn't stop her, she headed to the town hall to set up her little stage one last time.
Silence arrived at the rock farm finally. The time wasn't slow down for her, it kept counting back. Having about ten minutes, she had to find Inky as soon as possible. She was in the house with the others. She put the potion under her wings before approaching them.
"Um, excuse me."
"Oh, Silence. Did you forget something? asked Inkie.
"Actually, I need to talk to you... in private." she said.
Inky looked at her parents, who just nodded as a sign of approval. She led the pegasus upstairs, who closed the door behind.
"So....?" Inkie asked.
"Just a tiny favour, please don't be mad." Silence said as she began to levitate the potion in the air. A second later Silence revealed her true form scaring the soul out of poor Inkie. Before she could even scream up something Silence grabbed her neck and held up in the air with magic. The pegasus forced down the potion in Inkies throat, then released her the pony who dropped on the floor like a marionette. Silence's heart was beating with an extreme velocity, her senses were on the top because of the adrenaline. She didn't waste time but quickly fed off Inkie's blood sucking herself full. The timer faded away as her system now worked properly, so the only thing she had to worry about was the potion.
"(I hope that thing did work.)". She turned her camouflage back on and put the mare in her bed, then sat down and waited for her to wake up, which wasn't a long time. A minute later she woke up.
"Uuuuhhh, what happened?" she asked.
"Are you okay? That looked really bad?"
"That? What? Wh- I- Why we came here, actually?"
"I was to ask you something, but you tripped and hit your head at the edge of the cupboard. Are you okay?"
"Yeah....yeah yeah, I'm fine I...I feel fine. What did you want to ask?"
"Pinkie will hold a party in my new house after I buy it. Don't you wanna come?" the pegasus asked.
Inkie smiled. "Thank you but I can't. The farm needs me, I have no time." she said.
"Sure, no problem." Silence answered. Inkie was very protective towards her home. They bid farewell and the pegasus walked back home, with the empty vial hidden under her wings.
Even though things seem to turn back to "normal", she still was a bit sad. She wanted to save it up to Twilight. When she was in a distance far away from the wandering eyes she dropped the glass, stomped on it and flew back to Ponyville.
Like a box, Trixie's little home opened up creating a stage in front of the town hall. However, there were no fireworks, no smokescreens, and no Trixie. Some ponies gathered around to see what a "wonderful magic" Trixie will show again. But Trixie wasn't showing up, yet.
"Hey, Twilight you've got to see who came back to get beaten up again." said Rainbow Dash as she arrived at the library. A second later her other friends appeared too.
"What is that Rainbow?" she asked with a phlegmatic voice.
"Trixie wants another round." the pegasus replied.
Silence also flew in and noticing the crowd she felt kind of surprised.
"Hi there girls! What's this big meeting?" she asked.
"A quite uncomfortable pony showed up again, nothing special." answered Rarity.
"Who? Trixie?" asked Silence.
"You know her?!" shouted everypony is surprise.
"I brought her here, she seemed quite broken." the pegasus said.
The other ponies looked at each other. Rainbow just smacked her own face giving out a sigh.
"Darling, this wasn't a really good idea." said Rarity.
"She's evil." continued Fluttershy.
"An' selfish." added AJ.
"And totally loko." finished Pinkie.
"Guys stop! Trixie did apologize last time I met her. She is not that awful as we all thought." Twilight interrupted. She turned to Silence afterwards. "However....this doesn't necessarily mean we can trust her, okay?"
"Twilight, she is heartbroken. She needs help." the pegasus said.
But Dash just flew to her pushing her head towards Silence's, trying to intimidate her "Oh, help? In what? Using us upon again?" she shouted madly.
"Enough!" screamed Twilight "We will find it out ourselves and put an end of this mess."
"Fine, let's go then." said Applejack.
The seven friends trotted to the town hall to see what's going on there. Trixie was still hesitating, she didn't really want to face them after all this. But she put herself together and when she saw via the window the smaller crowd in front of her wagon she took a deep breath and made the decision that she can't undo now. She slowly walked on her stage, her eyes looking at the floor, shut her eyes and took another deep breath and began her speech.
"Ponyville, citizens, I know the horrible things I've done so far is unacceptable and unforgivable. Yet, I'd still like to tell you: I'm sorry. I'm terribly sorry. Looking back, I'm still unable to grasp the weight of my deeds so I understand if you don't forgive me. That's all I wanted."
As she opened her eyes up again, she noticed most of the grumpy faces turned into a smile as well as the crowd were much bigger than before. Despite that, she sadly walked down her stage and was about to move back to her wagon when a voice stopped her.
"Trixie!" shouted Twilight making her turn back "That was an extraordinary thing from you." she continued. The entire gang went after her.
"I'm glad you did it." added Silence.
"Thanks, though I don't feel any better, and I decided to move on anyway." she said.
The group looked at each other then back to the unicorn "Trixie, there is no reason to go." said Twilight.
"Do you forgive me? After all the things I done?!" she asked in shock.
"Of course we do." Twilight answered.
"There is no reason to hold a grudge." continued Pinkie.
"Everypony can get a second chance." added Fluttershy.
"And besides, stress is really harmful to your skin." said Rarity as some extra information.
But AJ stepped forward "But keep your hooves out of trouble, or else..." she added.
Silence looked around as she saw the forgiving faces smiling towards the sinned unicorn "See? I told you they will." she stepped closed to her, put her hoof on her back and continued "You can live with me when I'll buy my house, until then...." she looked at Twilight who nodded "...you can park your wagon next to the library." she finished.
"Thank you. Thank you very much." Trixie said gratefully.
"See you there then." Silence said. Now that the problem has been solved, there were nothing to do, everypony went home.
However, as Twilight and Silence arrived at the library a letter was lying on the floor.
"Wow, what can that be?" asked Twilight and opened the mail. "Woah, Silence! Look at this!" she shouted.
The letter was a mail from the mayor about the auction. "Guess who bought your dress?" she said excitedly.
"Who?" asked Silence.
"Sapphire Shores, the fashion diva."
"Mhm...."
Seeing that this didn't make a huge impact on the pegasus, Twilight showed her the letter.
"Woah!!" shouted up Silence as she saw the price.
"I know right. Seems like there were some bid-battles, which is only good for us. We are just a few steps away from that house now. We can quickly gather up those few bits together for you, isn't it great?"
"Uh, yes it is." suddenly realizing the fact that she won't have her friend around for much more saddened the pegasus a little, but she didn't let Twilight knew it. Silence felt she needs to tell the unicorn about her feelings, her feelings that were more than friendship. Twilight was beautiful, inside a caring, understanding and studious heart, outside a miracle of mulberry and sapphire adorned by some brilliant rose. Twilight was so... perfect. Yet still, Silence felt she was too weak and shy for that. Blossomforth was moving in two days so they were just in time. The rest of the day was in lack of events, fortunately, but at night Silence waited for the others to fell asleep before moving out. This time however she wasn't going for feeding but something else.
She flew down on a tree branch and opened up the control panel in order to contact her clan again.
She quietly whispered "Hey, is this working? Anybody there?"
A female voice answered "Hello, Silence. Everything is fine?"
"No problems so far. Have you processed the data I sent about the alicorn?"
"Eh yes we did but the results are.... Would you like to hear the good or the bad news first?"
"Doesn't matter to me, Iry."
"The good news are that the enlarged magical energy output is capable of extending the maximum energy flow."
"That was only one. That's all? Anyway, what are the bad news?"
"The bad news are that it doesn't make an effect on your current output. This means the evolution spell will require quite an amount of it. I guess this won't mean a problem if you infuse it with black magic but I felt like telling as an extra. Not to mention that because of the bigger device the whole thing will...."
"Her horn will be hanging out of her eye right? I've counted that in already, and doesn't make much difference in my situation. About that black magic however.... I've noticed alicorns are capable of feeling it or something like that, so I think I won't run throwing it around. Anything else?"
"Eh yes. But you sure want to hear it?"
"Is it that bad?"
"Well, these creatures turned out to have an extreme magical output flow, but they're not without weaknesses. They are magically strong, but physically really weak, extremely weak actually, and when it comes to such an unfinished body of yours...."
"Glass cannon to its fullest. Okay I'll keep it in mind. How about the M.A.R.E.?"
"Em, the hulls are ready for transportation. They don't have emotions and such but are good enough for the basics. When will we move?"
"I, eh..... I'm slowly getting to establish a self-sufficient base soon in the current location. If everything goes fine we can settle down in two-three days."
"Okay, just give us the sign, we still have food stocks left enough for some time."
"Fine, will call you back later. See ya."
"Best wishes."
Silence closed the control panel and flew back to the library to join the others into the land of dreams.
The Sector II: Episode XV
The race
Silence woke up to a strange sound next day morning. It was a... giggle.
"Had good dreams tonight?" Twilight asked between two giggles she made. It wasn't teasing, moreover it was really adorable. An eyeblink later Silence noticed she slept in a pretty strange way, snuggling up to her pillow. As soon as this came to her realization she pushed her dream friend away, making the unicorn laugh even harder, with her hoof in front of her mouth. The pegasus sat up on her and patiently waited for a stop, which didn't came late.
"Oh you, this was adorable beyond words." Twilight said wiping a tear off her cheek.
"Rather embarassing if you ask me." replied Silence.
"Well, it depends on the point of view." said Twilight "You're such a sleepy head. Always waking up so late."
Silence - by reflex looked at the clock that showed 11 AM already. She slept over the breakfast already, but she didn't mind it, she's not the one that's into eating.
"Also, look what I found this morning in front of the door." the unicorn said showing her a piece of paper.
"Meet me in the outskirts at night, I'd like to tell something in private?" read the pegasus loudly with a weird, questioning pronounciation.
"I know, isn't it interesting? A blind date! Somepony noticed me after all..." the unicorn said with her eyes glowing and shining as the doors of a possible dream coming true.
"Twilight stay on the ground... it may be dangerous."
"Yes. You're right. He may be a dealer, or even worse. What if it's a trap? What if they want to-" said Twilight falling to the other side of the horse, but the pegasus stopped her.
"I didn't say you shouldn't go, but be careful, okay?"
Before the unicorn could answer a voice called her. It was Rainbow Dash.
"Hey, Twilight! Don't you know where Fluttershy is? It's time for us to beat the record?" she said.
"What kind of record?" Twilight asked while heading down the stairs to put the mysterious message on the table.
"Cloudsdale needs water again, and last year wasn't a big failure, but this year...." she flew up in the air speaking like a military sergeant who tries to motivate the soldiers "....this year is ours, and nothing can take it away."
"Wow, that was kind of motivating, but I haven't met Fluttershy today. However...." Twilight turned back and winked at Silence. Rainbow got the message too and looked at her, but unlike Twilight, she had doubt in her eyes.
"Meet the others in the town hall in one hour okay?"
"Sure. Anything else?"
"Yeah. Don't even think about doing something stupid." then in a dash, she flew out where she came from.
Even Twilight felt the tension between them, and this made her quite nervous. Anyway, she had no time for this now as she had to look for something important, something mysterious that was close to her. She started to pick down books from the shelves and carefully examine their contents.
"I'm out to look for Fluttershy then. I'd like to know what all this fuss is about." said Silence.
"I can tell you too, no need to search all over Ponyville for that." responed Twilight turning back from her work.
"No thanks, I'll leave you do your work." she answered and left the library to look for her friend.
"Fluttershy! Are you home?" she asked while knocking on her door.
Suddenly a voice sounded from her right "Pst.". It came from the bush. Silence went closer and closer and in a blink of an eye a yellow hoof grabbed hers and dragged her inside. She turned around coughing, but when she opened her eyes, her vision was filled with yellow, that a second later disappeared then came back with a face added to it. It was Fluttershy, whispering the followings in a scared, weak voice "Have you seen Rainbow Dash?"
Silence nodded slowly and quitely on the ground, not making any noise. Her face was all red and not only from the last half second, but the vicinity of her friend. The closeness didn't seem to bother Fluttershy though.
"Please don't tell me I'm here." she whispered as she could start crying. She seemed so weak, desperate and helpless… she was so adorable.
"What is going on?" the grey pony asked.
"Dash wants me to help her bring water to Cloudsdale, but I really, really, really don't wanna go." the yellow pony whispered, getting herself even closer to Silence. Their nose was almost thouching each other's.
"W-why not?" asked Silence with her face all red.
"Because… because-"
"Fluttershy!" shouted Rainbow from behind as she was knocking on the door, making her yell up from surprise. Of course Dash spotted where it came from and came to check out the hiding pony. She didn't expect her to be with Silence, not to mention the… suspicious pose of theirs.
"What are you doing?!" she shouted from confusion.
Both pegasi flew out from the bush.
"Rainbow Dash, please I-"
"Not you Fluttershy. What are YOU doing here?!" said Dash poking Silence's chest.
Silence grabbed her hoof and pushed away "Trying to figure out what all this fuss is about?" she brushed the dirt off herself and continued "Appearently, Fluttershy doesn't want to get in this thing, whatever it may be."
"Um… it's about making a giant, enormous, many-pony-can-get-hurt-dangerous hurricane so we can deliver the water to Cloudsdale." whispered quickly Fluttershy.
"So you was there last time?" asked Silence. The answer was a gentle nod followed by a little squeak and a step backwards.
"And she'll be there this time too, right Fluttershy?" asked Dash.
Fluttershy didn't respond, she wanted to run away but knew she can't escape.
"Rainbow, please give her some time."
"Hey! Don't tell me what to do! I'm the leader of the..." she shouted back, but as she looked at Fluttershy she changed her mind.
"Ah, ten minutes. That's all you have." she said and flew away.
Silence looked at her pegasus friend "Come in! Tell me what the problem is."
Fluttershy nodded silently and did so. Silence made her lay down on her sofa and played the therapist once again "So...."
Fluttershy gave out an adorable sigh then began to confess, while looking at the ceiling.
"I'm a horrible flyer." she said "I'm so slow I feel like I'm useless." her voice became weaker and weaker with every sentence.
"I know last year I did it well, but I… I can't get rid of the thought."
"Of being a laughing stuff, or humiliating yourself?"
"Yes…"
Silence smiled, she leaned towards the pegasus and said "Flushy, it's alright. Who flies too fast can't see the beauty of the scenery around."
"What do you mean?" asked Flushy.
"I mean that you may not be as fast as Dashie, but you are much more elegant. You weren't born for this, but for something else. Let me tell you, I also have a bit strange habit while flying."
Fluttershy's expression was enough to tell the question, so Silence answered.
"I tend to lean left when turning right and vice versa mid-air." she said.
Fluttershy was stuck and confused "How can you even do that?" she asked.
"I don't know, I just learned this way somehow." the friendly pony said, while putting her hoof on her friend's back "See? Nobody's perfect. I bet even-" but the Dash interrupted them again "Time's out Fluttershy."
Fluttershy slowly opened the door, trying to avoid Rainbow's look.
"So...? Will you join or not?" she asked inpatiently.
Fluttershy gently shook her head, her legs shivering meanwhile.
"Oh come on, Fluttershy! You did… great last time, don't you remember?" Dash said.
"Yes…but…no!" she squeaked.
"Look, I bet the briefing will get back your motivation right away." she said while flying behind Fluttershy trying to push her out. However Silence interfered "Rainbow you're too pushy! Let her-"
"Don't tell me what to do! Listen up, I lead the group of Ponyville everytime for a reason, and I won't let someone who brought a traitor back to the town give me orders. Thanks."
"Then.... how about a deal? I heard you like racing."
Dash turned back as it catched her interest "You? Against me? Hah! I'm the best flyer in all of Equestria."
"Um, I actually-" murmured Fluttershy.
"Yes, a race, the winner takes Fluttershy, is something wrong?" Asked Silence in a provoking tone stepping closer to Rainbow.
"Girls I-"
"Tell me where and how. I'll beat you to the ground anywhere, anytime." Replied Dash madly as they pushed their faces to each others'.
"Um, what if I'd-"
"Sure, one hour later, I'll get an idea until then."
"Do you always need time before deciding something? One hour, okay." Dash said and they flew away in the two opposite directions, leaving poor Fluttershy alone.
"Guys, I know how could we...." but as she saw they can't hear her she squeaked and moved back to her cottage.
"I don't think this was a wise decision Silence." told Twilight as the pegasus explained her the situation "Rainbow is fast, extremely fast. She works hard to become a Wonderbolt and so far she proven worthy for that. She might be even better then the Wonderbolts themselves."
"I don't really care, Twilight. The mind always beats the might." replied Silence "She gave me the chance to choose the details. I want to smash that swollen ego of hers to the ground, and I will use this to my advantage to the maximum." she added while pacing up and down in the library as Twilight watched her from the bed.
"What are you planning, then?" the unicorn asked.
"Everybody has a weakness, Twilight. I'll make sure to find out hers first." Silence added. Of course, Twilight knew her plan already. She was to tweak the rules to be as against Rainbow as possible. She turned away and shut her eyes saying "Well I won't help in your cheating. You got to do this on your own.".
"I wasn't asking for help, leave it to me. See you later." Silence said and flew away from the balcony for further planning.
"Bye." the unicorn replied then went back to dig the depths of the mysteries.
"Ohh, it's not here either." she said nervously as she put the book to the giant pile next to her. Then she picked up another one and began to read that.
Silence meanwhile made some circles over Ponyville, being lost in her thoughts. She knew her strenght is in the short-distance races as she reaches her maximum speed easily which is not much. Using this as an advantage was not enough, though.
Suddenly a laugh interrupted her "What is this flying style?" teased her Rainbow Dash. Silence just rolled her eyes.
However Dash followed her "Come on, loose up a bit, you circle here for almost twenty minutes. It's not like your life would depend on it." she said and flew away. Only then did Silence realise how could she beat her. Rainbow is a sensitive machinery, an aerodynamic, sporty being, yet fragile and capable of being easily thrown off her balance. If only one thing goes wrong it could end up as a tragedy. She got an idea but wasn't sure if it works. However there was no time to test it, since as she flew back to the library Rainbow waited for her "Time's up! Made up your mind, yet?".
"Uh, yes." replied the other pegasus "The rules: a straight line race along the main street, from the town hall to the Ponyville sign."
"Pfft, piece of cake. Meet you there in a few minutes." told dash and got lost.
Silence turned to the unicorn "Twilight-"
The purple one however was quite angry at the pegasus. "If you want me to put a speed spell on you, I-"
"No, what are you… listen, I was wondering what's all that thing that made you create such a mess." said Silence. The library was indeed quite a place suffered from an earthquake. Books all around the floor and the shelves were almost empty.
"Uhh, hehe, nothing special, now, uh, go win that race!" Twilight told, and as her friend dissappeared she desperately continued her search.
Silence's arrival was welcomed not only by Rainbow Dash, but a horde of other ponies as well. Seems like she told about the race to them. They looked at each other for a few silent seconds, ten the two racers stood next to each other. A third pony walked to the middle of the road and raised her hoof, while Silence adjusted her wings using her teeth to make her first flap's power hit completely behind her.
"Ready…Steady… GO!" shouted the pony and the pegasi dashed next to her. Even though she didn't know, Silence's tactics worked, she manage to destabilise Dash in the beggining forcing her to slow down for a second. This and the fact that Silence was a faster starter with a weight of a feather gave her the first place…for now. But she had no time for that, she needed to give her best now. However she noticed her competitor from the reflection of the windows she passed by. Dash rapidly closed up to Silence despite her starting conditions. There was not much left, they started to see the crowd at the finish. Dash was still behind Silence but she was much faster then her. Question was if she can take the lead by the finish line. The time slowed down at the lasts seconds as the pegasi broke through the finish line. They were so fast and so close to each other basically nopony was able to decide who won. Silence slowed down and landed wheezing, unlike Rainbow who turned upwards after crossing the finish line, and letting away a giant colorful explosion a few seconds later.
But who won? The answer was given by Twilight who also came with a strange photographic device she claimed to tell the results. As the picture was given Twilight, the winner turned out to be nopony else but Rainbow Dash, with a head in front of Silence. The citizens knowing the results then spreaded out, talking about their bets, or the race, but there was nothing to see here anymore.
"Hah, I told you it's a piece of cake." bragged Dash despite she almost lost.
"You may have won this one, but every power has a different power bigger than it is. And the ones blinded by themselves forgetting to look around are always the first victims." warned her Silence who was about to walk away afterwards.
"Is that a warning?" provoked her Rainbow.
"Now enough!" shouted up Twilight stomping on the ground with all her might "Silence is right, you shouldn't be so pushy sometimes Dash!" chid her the unicorn who turned to the other one afterwards "but Rainbow is also right, you don't need to make a big deal out of this.". The two pegasus felt a bit ashamed from that, but Twilight lowered her temper next time and added "Now shake hooves, it was a fair race and Rainbow won.". Silence and Dash did so and made out after all. There was only one thing left to do: tell the results to Fluttershy. Both the pegasi and Twilight headed to her cottage not far from there.
Fluttershy wasn't too happy about it, but she came up with a nice idea already "Umm, I was thinking meanwhile and had an idea." she told them modestly.
"Yes?" asked Dash.
"How about I'd not fly but, um, cheer you from behind the wingpower counter." she recommended as it was a question.
Rainbow rolled her eyes before replying then smiled at her "But... uh, fine.".
The yellow pony excitedly clapped hearing that "Oh, thank you so much.".
"Now will you come or not? We're already late because of you."
"Oh, yes, um, just give me a second." she said, then ran back, took a pair off googles out from her wardrobe, put them on and added "Yes, I'm ready."
They left the cottage afterwards and Rainbow alongside with Fluttershy went to gather with the other pegasi. However Rainbow had a last word with Silence, pushing her hoof to her chest again
"But don't think we're buddies yet, understood?" and with a fierce look, she left Silence there, who went home afterwards. The sun was still up, refusing to lay down as the time decided to pass somewhat slower that day.
The Sector II: Episode XVI
Last night, good night.
As Silence and Twilight arrived back at the library, something strange welcomed her. Everything was clean, ordered and the books were put back in their shelves.
"Wow Twilight, it's beautiful." she complimented.
"I know, I needed to make a few preparations for his arrival." she said "So, are you ready?".
"I sure am. Let's find that Blossomforth girl." she said confidently.
They headed out to do so, to the new home two house away. But on the street Silence stopped as she saw her brand new friend's, Trixie's home. She knocked on it, making her look out the window.
"Hey Trixie! We're off to buy my new house, wanna come?" she asked.
"Sure thing! Trixie would also like to take a look at her home." the unicorn answered. Both three of us went on and a few moments later they already arrived. Twilight knocked on the door and after a few quiet moments Blossomforth appeared and let the guys in as she already knew why they came.
"Look girls..." she said letting out a heavy sigh "I'll be gone by the day after tomorrow, yet I'm still a bit worried."
"Don't worry, I'm sure Silence can take care of the house, and with a little help we gathered enough money, look." Twilight said while putting a bag of bits on the table.
After some counting Blossom's fear seamed to become true "Guys this is not enough.".
The other ponies were all shocked and confused, but the pegasus continued with another sigh "Look, I don't want to give this home for some pony I barely even know, however I can't let Twilight babysit you all the time so here is a deal: I give you the keys for these few bits you brought, but you need to hand me another one like this next month. I'll be checking back and if you won't have the money till then…"
"Sure, I'll try my best." said Silence.
"I do hope so. Then mind you fill this little contract? I made them in case you manage to bring me the money somehow."
Blossom told while tossing three papers with the same content in front of Silence. They both signed all three of them, along with Twilight and Trixie as witnesses.
"Mind if I look around, then?" Silence asked.
"Not at all, feel yourself at home." Blossom replied and chuckled.
The house was a wonderful, cozy little home despite most of the furniture was not there anymore. Only the sofas was standing in the living room. It had it's own harmonical, victorian atmosphere that reminded the good old times. The two sofas, the fireplace and the red wallpapers made the room really cozy. The bedroom however looked quite different, yet empty. The kitchen however was furnished enough to be usable. And for last but not least, the basement. The basement was a little, completely empty room with only the light on the ceiling "decorating" it. It was just perfect. After looking around they took their leave.
"Isn't this amazing? Your very own home here and not far from me. We can still see each other in a daily dose." Twilight said.
"This reminds me, I have to cancel my invitation to Pinkie's party. You didn't forget her farewell party, right?"
"Well…(Darnit!)" Silence replied awkwardly.
"Twilight Sparkle, how come you won't participate in your best friend's party." Trixie asked.
"It's private business Trixie." replied the purple one.
Silence turned to her suddenly "Oh, Trixie. I already wanted to ask you if we could spend some time together.".
"Of course."
"Mind if I borrow your chess set, Twilight?" she turned to the other one.
"Oh, I see what you're up to. Sure thing." Twilight replied with a seductive yet a bit wicked smile on her face. As they arrived at the library Silence was to went in for the chess set but Twilight stopped her for a moment and whispered "Psst… beat her to the ground!". The unicorn after a sexy wink went on her merry way leaving the other two be. Silence took the game and packed it down at Trixie's house where the unicorn was waiting for her.
"Ready for a round?" the pegasus asked.
"Hah, do you think you can win against Trixie?" the unicorn replied.
"Yes, I'm quite sure about that." answered Silence.
After several moves they began to talk about their lives.
"So what were you planning to do?" asked the pegasus.
"I think I might start my travelling magician job again. This time being much more careful what will I say." Trixie answered without any sign of show-offing and boasting. Her voice was so strange without these elements.
"Doing what you're best at, huh?" Silence told while moving a chess figure, then leaning back to the wall behind her.
"Yes, I always had a knack on doing tricks and other things, I thought it'd be a nice way to make a living. I didn't know it can be that… fragile." Trixie told while moving one of her figures forward.
"You know, it's never too late to start over." the pegasus said why taking out one of Trixie's soldiers "Check!"
Trixie groaned a little, made her move and carried on the conversation "Yes, I guess. How about you? How things going with Twilight?".
"We're getting along fine, Twilight is a really nice and generous friend. I'm glad she's here and we can spend some time together. I owe her a lot..." the pegasus responded while making her move.
"I see, like what do you do together?" Trixie asked while hitting off a pawn pony.
"Mostly playing chess when she is not buried in books and I'm home too. You know I feel like with every game, I'm getting one step closer to her." she said leaning towards Trixie, then looking at the chequer and making another move.
Trixie's response was a simple "Mhm." this time as she was thinking about her next move when Silence cut in
"Umm, Trixie, it's checkmate.".
Trixie was kinda upset by hearing that and realizing it's right, but she accepted that she lost. Silence was to pack the chess set as her attention was caught by the melancholic mare gazing at the sunset, that slowly hid behind the houses of Ponyville. As soon as she finished it she put it under her right wing and walked up to her.
But Trixie spoke up first "Do you think I should try again?".
Silence put her left hoof on her back "Trixie, you can't lose with this.".
The pegasus pat her back and on the way out she motivated her friend a little more "You're a great pony, you have pros and cons just like anybody else. You worth no less then them.". And thus she closed the door leaving Trixie speechless, lost in her thoughts.
Twilight was already home that time, preparing herself for the big date.
"How do I look?" she asked. The unicorn wore her mane so elegantly, her earrings were marvelous and her makeup was beautiful too.
"Uh, don't you think the lipstick is too much?" the pegasus asked. Twilight looked at the mirror and gave it another thought.
"Right, the eye shadow will be more than enough." she told as she ran back to her room. When she came back all ready, the unicorn felt like she must apologize "I'm sorry I can't make it to your party.".
"It's okay. We have enough time to back it up… somehow.".
"Have fun!"
"I sure will.". Twilight left afterwards, her nerves on the edge. She was both worried and excited about it, yet she was confident too.
The sun left to traces of its being now, as the sky turned all dark despite there were no stars on it yet. Twilight arrived, however she was all alone. After many minutes of searching she came to the realization that there were nopony in the park but her.
"Hello? Anypony here?". After a few more calls and some seconds a familiar voice sounded from above.
"Hello Twilight.". It was Silence, lying on the branch of a tree on the top of the small hill.
"Silence? I recall saying I don't need personal guards. By the way, haven't you seen anyone around? So far it seems like my dating partner is nothing but a prank." the unicorn said as she desperately looked around.
The pegasus flapped a few times as she landed on the ground in front of Twilight and confessed "I'm your dating partner, Twilight."
The unicorns pupils shrunk as she heard that, it was so confusing, awkward, embarrassing, but mostly strange. After a few silent moments the unicorn replied anyway "Oookay, lot's of questions are going through my mind right now, but I'd like to start with the obvious one: Why?" she said while taking a step backwards.
Silence turned around a with a simple flap, she jumped to the small telescope she sat up on the hill. She borrowed it from Spike, who though the pegasus wants to peek Twilight's secret bachelor.
"I wanted to spend our last night with together. Just you and me, and a little astronomy." she said.
"Look, I really appreciate your feelings toward me, but you have to know I'm not "that" kind of girl." Twilight replied. She wasn't afraid of slowly walking closer to Silence though, despite the odd situation she was in.
"Sure, I just wanted to let you know about my feelings." the pegasus said as she laid down in front of the telescope.
"I'm grateful you're so honest about that, and for that I'd prefer to stay with you. I don't want to hurt those feelings, but you have to know this relation between us can't be more than friendship." the unicorn said as she laid next to her friend, her face was all rosy red and all her bones wanted to run, but her mind wanted to stay.
"I love you. You're so beautiful, both inside and outside." Silence said. Her eyes were scorching hot of the love erupting from it, piercing through the soul of her beloved unicorn. She put her right hoof on Twilight's left slowly, gently.
Twilight just turned her head away "Today morning, when I woke you up… were you dreaming about me?" she asked in a weak voice, as if Fluttershy would speak instead of her. However both of them know the obvious answer. Silence rolled around, and gazed at the little yellow dots on the ceiling of the endless universe with her hooves on her chest as she would pray. Twilight also did it.
"Isn't it wonderful? The stars, the moon…" the pegasus asked.
"Indeed, I've never seen the Alicorn from this perspective." Twilight answered making her friend chuckle.
"Oh Twilight… where one sees art you see numbers. Close your eyes, sweetheart." the pegasus said smiling adorably at the unicorn. Twilight slowly shut them hoping it's not just a cheap prank of Silence to kiss her or something.
"Now clear your mind from all the statistics, all numbers and information and open up again."
Twilight waited a few moments, the opened the gates of her vision once again, seeing an entirely different world. Uncountable amount of stars were gathering around their giant mistress, the Moon, like little campfires in the space far, far away, waiting for the imagination of one playing "connect the dots" with them.
"Yes it is…" replied Twilight. After a few minutes staring at the night sky and letting their creativity fly Silence sat up as she needed to ask something important.
"Twilight, I need to ask something."
"Yes?" asked back the unicorn as she sat up too.
"Am I… any different from now, after all this?"
Twilight looked away for a moment, then back to her "Saying no would be a lie, but the only thing changed is that I know you even more now. You doesn't worth any less than before and I won't back away because your emotions." calmed her Twilight.
"Thank you." the pegasus said as she hugged her best friend tightly, snuggling up to her so close they felt their hot breath in the chilly night. "You're the best pony I've ever had, sweetheart.".
"Remember, just friendsh-" but as the unicorn felt her friend's fierily lips pressing against her neck she pushed the pegasus away with all her might, making her fall on the ground.
"S-…Sh- Shees Silence, you're… so pushy…" she said shivering, her voice weakened and twitching.
The pegasus nodded, she knew she stepped over the line. She stood up and went closer to the unicorn "Twilight I'm-"
"No! Just… just…" but instead of finishing the sentence, Twilight just turned around and ran away, as fast as she could, not even thinking about where or what, not even looking back.
"Wait! Twi…light." she knew it doesn't matter now. The pegasus became so upset, she was angry at herself and ashamed. She kicked the tree with all her power, grabbed the telescope and went home. But as she realized there is a party in the house that was almost her new home she just went to the library, put the device on the balcony then flew to the closest tree to lay down on a branch, thinking about the terrible mistake she just made.
The Sector II: Episode XVII
Home, sweet Home
"You're the best pony I've ever had, sweetheart!" confessed Silence as her lips gently pressed at Twilight's neck, but the unicorn pushed her away.
"No! You're a monster... a MONSTER!" screamed Twilight as she ran away, as fast as her hooves could.
"Wait! Twi..."
"SHUT UP! You also know what you are, and only the matter of time when she will find it out, if you continue this idiocy." a voice shouted at her, the voice of her clanmate, the one who she spoke to so often. Silence looked at her hooves, stared at those huge holes on her left hoof for a moment, then she slowly laid down on the ground, watching Twilight running away, as the tears started to pour from her right eye.
She woke up to the strange feeling that the place she was sleeping at was way too comfy. Oddly she didn't remember falling asleep, but one thing was sure: she is now in the library again. Seems like the entire scene was just a dream.
"Are you okay?" asked her Twilight.
"What were you doing out there? Were you drunk or something?" added Spike.
Silence's eyelids, especially the right were really red showing she surely cried a lot. She slowly but managed to get up and after a few moments she got out of her bed too. The pegasus kept rubbing her eyes, they were really irritating.
"Spike, could you leave us be for a minute?" asked the purple pony.
"Uh, yeah sure." he answered scratching the top of his head and left the room.
As soon as the dragon closed the door Twilight began to whisper something to Silence, but after the first word she stopped and pushed the door open busting the peeking dragon.
She tried again after closing the door again "Silence, I'm terribly sorry about the yesterday. I should have handled it in a better way.".
"Not your fault mistress mine, it was me who stepped over the line." apologized the pegasus.
"No hard feelings?"
"No hard feelings." They hugged each other, gazed deep in their eyes for some moment and by getting this little problem behind they began to get down to their own business. And Silence's business needed much hurry, since Blossom was to move any time and she didn't even bid farewell to her. In all a hurry she decided to get a little something to her, and that little something got to be wild flowers, freshly picked from the Everfree forest. She slapped up a book to find one that's not dangerous at all and as soon as she did the pegasus dashed away.
Meanwhile Twilight packed up as she was to head to Canterlot for the same reason she messed up the library: information.
"Can I come in now?" Spike shouted from downstairs.
"No need for that, we're leaving." the unicorn answered. They ran to the train station and managed to catch one in the last moment. After a few moments of catching some air after the big rush, and now being able to speak normally Spike asked
"What's the rush, Twilight? You messed up the entire library yesterday and now this?"
"We need to find out what that symbol is." the unicorn replied.
"What symbol?"
"Did you even see Silence's cutie mark? I've never seen something like that before. It is all black and shows no sign of any special talent. It's just… there."
"Why don't you just ask her?"
"I did. She is really sensitive about the topic and doesn't want to talk about it. We need to find something Spike, that thing starts to really frustrate me." the unicorn said as the train left Ponyville.
Meanwhile Silence, with the flowers in her mouth hurried to Blossomforth, who - with the help of two stallions was already leaving the town with her carriage. Silence flew to her and gave her the flowers.
"Sorry for not being on the party yesterday, I was burdened with my stuff." she apologized.
"No, it's alright, you needed to pack up just like me, I understand. Thank you the flowers, it's so nice from you." Blossom replied with a cute smile.
"That's the least. Best wishes, we'll miss you."
"Aaww thank you. Bests to you too." she hugged Silence who suddenly came to realization as bells shouted up in a distance.
"What's the time?" she asked in panic.
"Um, eight 'o clock, why?"
The gray mare squealed up. She was late from work, a quick farewell and she dashed to the rock farm where Trixie and Inkie were waiting for her already.
"Was the party too long?" asked Inkie.
"Sorry… Inkie." replied the pegasus while trying to catch some air.
"Okay guys, today's schedule is simple. We need to grab these piles and roll 'em to that side, so we won't have to hurry when they come for it, okay?"
"Hah, easy task for Trixie. Perks of being a unicorn." Trixie bragged as she picked up five stones and carried them like they were feathers. The other two girls joined her too beginning to discuss meanwhile.
"Enjoyed the party last night?" asked Inkie.
"No, I wasn't there actually… too much things to do." replied the pegasus as she turned back for another stone "How about you and your sisters?"
"Sisters? How do you know about Blinkie?" the earth pony asked in surprise.
"Pinkie told about her a while ago, but now that I think about it, I haven't seen her around. What happened to her?"
Inkie stopped. Her eyes were showing sadness and depression brought up by painful memories as she stared at the ground "She… left the family about the year ago."
Silence also stopped "…oh…my condolences…"
Inkie got surprised and looked at the pegasus in confusion "Huh? She's not dead. She just moved to Manehatten."
"Oh! Sorry, I thought…"
"It's okay. She usually sends letters to us so we can keep in touch… she works as a jeweler there." Inkie stopped again with now feeling even more depressed. It was just a guess but the pegasus knew what the problem is. Her sisters left one by one and found their special talents, but she stayed here.
"You don't want to leave the family too, right?" asked her. Inkie didn't answer, just carried on the work along with her sad face. It was clear now: she either stays or sacrifices her family for a better life. She knew the feeling. The depressing mood was changed by Trixie who shouted up from in front of a pile "Trixie demands a raise for this.". Inkie adorably rolled her eyes and Silence chuckled as they went back to work.
"Hey Twilight! Look at this awesome hat I brought." said Spike as she entered the library.
"Sssh, Spike! We're in the library." whispered back the unicorn. Twilight's mane was all messy and the wrinkles under her eyes were slowly started to grow bigger and bigger.
"Don't you think you should do a little break now." asked the dragon.
"There is no time to waste, Spike." she answered but as she saw the stripes burned into her retinae from the lots of reading she rubbed her eyes and began to moan. "We must find something…" the unicorn went back reading even though she barely could.
"Great job, guys. That's all for today." said Inkie as she wiped the sweat down her forehead. The workers got their payment and went home, or at least they were to, when Trixie suddenly turned back. She waited for a few moments, getting the things ordered in her mind, yet she turned back and decided not to do so. The unicorn and the pegasus went home, Trixie to her wagon and Silence to her brand new house.
"Hey Trixie. Do you want to move your hut to the backyard?" shouted Silence before Trixie went in her home. The unicorn shrugged and with her magic, she carefully put her wagon to the desired place, so it won't stand on the road anymore. The pegasus after the tiring day opened the door, walked in and was about to take a nap when she noticed that the cozy living room that was all furnished was now… almost empty. Only the two sofas remained and a little writing desk. Not being the picky one the pegasus laid down on a sofa and was to fall asleep when she noticed the little handle on the lower side of the furniture. The whole thing was unfoldable making it serve as a bed now.
"(Perfect, just the thing I needed)" she noted in herself with a smile on her face.
"My Princess Celestia…" prayed Twilight Sparkle to her highness "Give me a sign. A tiny help is all I need. I-"
"Uh, Twilight, shouldn't we just give up and ask her again? That's the third library you nuzzle up with this apocalyptic symbol nonsense."
"Don't be ridiculous! I didn't come so far to come home empty hoofed. If we can't find anything in the castle's library either, it is only because it doesn't exists." shouted back Twilight madly, all tired and messy… and a bit insane. The unicorn took down a book from the giant shelves that surrounded her and continued her hopeless search about the mysterious black symbol in Silence's flank.
Meanwhile the sleepy equine in Ponyville woke up for that disturbing feeling again. It was the change once again. She ran to the bathroom to give the gush out but something else also dropped. The bandage, soaking from the blood it managed to withhold so far gave up. Silence cleaned the basin and as she looked backed back up she noticed the sun slowly descending. It wasn't sunset yet, but she knew she slept for very long and something else was also kept interrupting her attention as she would have forgotten something. She kept pacing up and down the streets but couldn't find it out. The pegasus had no choice but to go home. On the way however a familiar character caught her attention: Twilight. Poor pony barely even stood on her own hooves, Spike had to take care of her not to fall.
"Spike… I'm seeing her again…" Twilight moaned.
"Twilight! Are you okay?" she asked worriedly.
"Nah, she's alright, just overtaxed her strength… again." Spike replied as this would happen on a daily basis. Silence decided to help her and take her home. She took the weak unicorn and laid her on the bed as they arrived at Twilight's house, while the dragon fetched her some food.
The unicorn ate her dinner with time while the worried eyes kept asking her "Feeling better?"
"Yes, thank you." nodded Twilight.
"I'll let you sleep, you earned a rest." winked Silence, then turned around and left the room. However as Twilight saw her cutie mark meanwhile her mind began to work again, making the unicorn let a despair-filled, frustrated moan out.
Spike however interrupted "No, don't even think about it! Take it easy Twi and try to have some sleep." he said and left the pony alone.
The orange sky started to fade to black, signing to the pegasus it's time to move out soon. Silence put her thoughts in order and called to signal for her clan members. As the first stars appeared she took her way to the Everfree forest. She traveled over the trees, the wild river, the cliffs and when she arrived at the secret ruins it was dark completely. She condescended to the entrance of the temple where the other clan members, the M.A.R.E. were waiting for her.
"Wow, nice. You look pretty convincing. You're just like the normal ponies, that's awesome." she complimented as she started counting the pegasi in herself "One, two, three… three only?".
The other mares looked all alike, grey skin, black curly mane, they even had the same cutie mark as Silence which she found really awesome. Only their eyes were different.
Suddenly one of them spoke up "Oh, I almost forgot. Here, it's a system update." she handed a little… strange chip to Silence. "You need to put it in somewhere, there must be something in that…"
"Let me get that for you." another one appeared from behind. However she wasn't the best-looking thing you could see. She had the same pattern as the others, however she had wires and plastic pipes coming out from her body, as well as four small, mechanical claws sticking out from her barely open mouth, like small fingers lining up next to each other ending up in her other parts. Two giant flexible, transparent plastic pipes were transferring blood from both her eyes ending up in her cutie mark. She grabbed the chip and after some search in Silence's mane she somehow opened up the pegasus' skull from the side where she had all the holes.
The disturbing biomechanical creature gasped "You broke the tank? And what does that crack looking for in the energy cell? I guess I told you it's a fragile device not a battering-ram." she shouted in anger. However her face was still, lacking of any facial emotions except a tiny smile, just like in case of the other's. Their voice was deformed as they would spoke through a phone or something.
"Just put that thing in already." the pegasus replied. The odd one placed in the chip and closed her head.
"Okay, that's done. Then all of us are here I see. So? These are the MARE?" she asked.
"Yes, as I told they lack of expressions but fine holders until we find a better hull." the disturbing pegasus replied.
"Great. The new headquarters I got has a basement so it'll be a good place to… stash stuff. How about the Core?"
"I… um… scrapped it." was the shy question sounding answer.
"You did WHAT?!" screamed back Silence.
"Hey, it was hopeless after creating all these bodies, I'm glad I could throw together this one in last place. So I scrapped it into pieces and built it in this one. Now it's some kind of repair drone-thingy." she answered, then turned away and added
"You should be at least grateful I got out the max of it.".
Silence sighed "Okay. Now what is this update thing you just gave me."
"Oh the update. Remember the data of that princess you sent a while ago? I encrypted it into a little program that needs magical energy infusion to be kept running. With that you can turn into a princess too, but only until you run out of magic. Though I don't think it can hold for long right now, but there is one way to find it out."
"Okay. I don't fancy the idea right now, though. These alicorns are like if they'd feel the black magic." she worried.
Silence opened up the now completely renewed control panel and ran the said program. Her holes showed up again and a black aura emerged from her horn deep inside her eye as the black magic flowed through it. Her body got covered in a light blue aura, that like a fragile cover scattered into pieces as Silence's alicorn form shown itself in full glory. The holes in her body remained the same while her horn was now sticking out of her left eye. Her brown mane was like Celestia's except the flowing. She truly was an artificial alicorn. However the whole thing lasted for two seconds, as she couldn't keep it up.
"Don't worry, as you use your magic more often your limits will be pushed as well."
"Yeah… okay. Everything is ready I see, let's roll out. Though it'll be a bit of problematic to get this much blood for us four."
"Yeah… about that…" said the strange pegasus, lowering her head looking at the ground along with the others "Our hulls are standard, working with electricity, not blood…"
Silence was shocked, her eyes shrunk "Standard? Not blood? Are you throwing your vampirism away? After all we've went through?!"
"Look, the fourth generation was your dream, not ours. You're living this dream right now, but for us, it was enough. I hope you understand."
"Yes… yes I do…" Silence said with a depressed tone, however she turned back to serious afterwards "Let's get moving then." she suggested and the five biomechanical lifeform headed to their new home.
"By the way, we'll need a nice name. Choose one, something that'd fit." she suggested.
"Spade Queen" said the blue eyed one.
"Orison" told the other one.
"How about Vision?" suggested the third, grey-eyed.
"Mercy…" told the fourth, the creepy one.
"As in acronym?" asked Silence.
"Yes, MERCY: Mechanical Electronic Repair-"
"You didn't change at all." chuckled Silence "Okay, that's the spirit. I hereby name us the MARE: Mechanical Artificial Robotic Equines. How is it?" she suggested as a new name of their alliance.
Everyone nodded and the five pegasi moved to Ponyville. Silence opened the door of her house as fast as she could
"Quick, inside!". Everybody ran in. Silence also was to do so when she noticed Princess Celestia's shadow in the window of Twilight's library. She quickly dashed in hoping it's not what it looks like and showed the clan their new home down in the basement, which was empty in the moment.
"Twilight Sparkle!" said Celestia in a very serious voice "Wake up, Twilight Sparkle!". The unicorn slowly opened her eyes, but when she saw the royal leader herself she jumped out from her bed from the surprise "Princess Celestia! I-".
"No, my apologies that I had to wake you up so late. However this information allows no delays." continued the princess as she started to pace up and down in the room. Twilight remained silent.
"We alicorns are blessed with the ability to sight the dark forces in case something is coming. We can perceive the disturbance in the flow of magic. Recently the flow has been broken, Twilight Sparkle."
"Broken?" asked the unicorn.
"Black magic. Both my sister and I felt its eruptions recently."
"Black magic? Like the one King Sombra used? The one you taught me?"
"No, my student. King Sombra distorted the crystal magic to shape it for his own taste. This is much more different, this is much more… pure. One can't born with such an ability inside, this is something one have to learn." explained Celestia as she leaned towards her student.
Twilight looked at her own cutie mark then back to her highness "Princess Celestia I'd never-"
"I know. Even though that seems like the only possible reason I trust you wholeheartedly. However, I advise you to be careful. Not everything is what it seems like." told the princess in a serious voice as she let a small pink heart-shaped bubble out from her horn, that slowly traveled towards Twilight, but exploded with the roar of a manticore, scaring the life out of the unicorn. "
If we can't find out what causes these eruptions… I don't know what's next." she added as she walked out to the balcony "Take care, my student." she advised and flew away in the night sky.
Twilight yawned and almost went back to sleep, but when she saw the bed Silence used to sleep in she changed her mind.
"(Is this still here? Uh, let's bring you back where you belong.)" she thought, picked up the bed with magic and went to put it back in the stash. However as she arrived and wanted to do so the bed accidentally leaned forwards making the sponge fall out, and something else. There were two old books hidden under them. Twilight was confused at first but when she saw what kind of books they were her blood ran cold. The books filled with the powerful, feared spells of black magic were laying just a step away from her. The unicorn's body was shaking from fear and confusion. What should she do now? Scream? Run? Tell it to Celestia? No! Keep it away! Keep it hidden!
However, there was an even more powerful force inside the mind of the Element of Magic. A force mightier than confusion and even fear.
It was curiosity.
The Sector II - Episode XVIII:
Bass vs. Class
"Thank you for helping me with these new Cupcakes." thanked Pinkie as she skipped down the street in excitement.
"You're welcome." answered Silence and Twilight completely at the same time for some reason, making the two friends look at each other in surprise then burst out in chuckles.
"Seems like we're in the same soundwave." noted the gray pegasus as soon as she stopped laughing. Despite she didn't say it, the way she looked at Twilight already added the final word in the unicorn's mind: "…darling."
"These cupcakes will the biggest hit-" added Pinkie but she suddenly stopped hopping as her tail started to act strangely
"Twitchy tail, twitchy tail!" she warned her friends making Twilight and her look up to the sky. In before Silence could ask what is the big deal, a noise of glass breaking interfered with the peaceful sounds of Ponyville. Everypony looked there in an instant. The noise came from a house on the other side of the street as a giant loudspeaker was thrown out of it from the first floor breaking into parts as it hit the ground. Through the now "open" window even more noises sounded as a horde of bulls would fight inside. Suddenly the sounds stopped, and a messy maned gray earth pony left the building via the door on the left shutting it behind with all her might. She also carried a cello attached to her side. The instrument was broken however, the lower part broke off only being carried by the strings while giant cracks covering all it's parts. The pony didn't seem to mind it though, just level-headedly went on her way.
Suddenly a voice screamed at her from inside "Hey Octopus, you forgot this!". A blue maned white pegasus appeared from the window with rage filling her eyes as she threw the casing of the cello at the other pony, but missed.
"How kind of you Vandal Scratch, now fetch your pills back." answered the earth pony in a calm voice as she put the broken cello in the casing and moved on.
The three ponies just stood there with eyes wide open. After some moments of silence, Twilight spoke the first word "Oh my… Vinyl and Octavia must have had a terrible breach. Such a break between such two good friends could be extremely hard to get over it. I must help them."
"I don't think it's a good idea Twilight, it's not really our business you know." suggested Silence.
"Maybe, but better a friend now then an unknown therapist later." replied Twilight. "Would you like to help? It would be much easier to handle this sitaution with a helping hoof." she asked her pegasus friend.
Silence took a look at the grey pony then with a heavy sigh she accepted it "Okay, mine is the cellist.".
"Thank you so much. Her name is Octavia by the way, a high-class cello player from Canterlot with an unique taste. I'm sure you'll come along fine with her, she is… quite similar to you. I'll try to help Vinyl then." the unicorn said and before Silence could move to catch up on her Twilight stopped her and added "One more thing: Tavia and Vinyl weren't only just friends… if you know what I mean.". Silence got surprised a little bit, but nodded and ran to catch up on Octavia while Twilight headed to Vinyl.
"Hey! What about the cupcakes?" shouted Pinkie after shuttling her attention back and forth between her two friends, but her question was left unanswered. With a sigh she added "Okay, next time then." and with a bit sad face she began walking home.
Twilight knocked on the door of their house.
"What the hay ar-? Oh, uh, hi Twilight!" said Vinyl after her small rage "How is it going?" asked awkwardly.
"That's what I'd like to ask. What was that?" asked the unicorn.
"Nothing, we just had a little fight with Tavia." the DJ replied.
"A little?! You just threw out a bunch of things through the window, you could easily kill somepony." shouted at her Twilight. However she decreased her volume a second later "Look, there is a clear problem between you two. As a good friend I'm here to help.".
"How?" asked Vinyl full of doubt.
"First I need to find the source of the problem. May I continue that inside? It would be much more comfortable for both of us." suggested the lavender unicorn.
"Yeah, yeah, sure, come in." accepted the other as she let Twilight walk in while she was picking up the scattered pieces of her bass from a distance using magic. After she was done with that, Vinyl followed her inside.
Meanwhile Silence followed the cellist gray mare to the Ponyville park where said pony sat down on a bench, opened her cello case and stared at her broken instrument. Her peaceful remember however was interrupted by the pegasus.
"Excuse me? You must be Octavia, correct me if I'm wrong." said Silence, carefully watching out to her way of speaking with her as an almost hi-class mare with a hi-class mare. She had a strange feeling, like if they'd met once already.
"Yes, I am. Can I help you?" answered Octavia. She had a strange yet charming accent and a voice as soft as her beautiful mane.
"Twilight sent me, she asked me to help you about the recent... events you have just went through." said the pegasus.
Octavia looked at the sky, sighed, then aimed her eyes back to the pegasus "I'd prefer to refuse, despite I appreciate her kind offer, but Twilight Sparkle is a stubborn mare so she wouldn't give up just like that. But in what way could you help?" she asked.
"Well I am no therapist, but I own a handful experience when it comes to solving problems and I'm more than happy to use it to its fullest. However I need to find the source of the issue first. I'd love to invite you to my house in order to do so." explained Silence.
"I'm humbled, thank you." Octavia nodded and followed the pegasus who led her to her home.
"So Vinyl, why don't you tell me all your problems with Octavia?" asked Twilight for co-operation as she made her friend lay down on the sofa in the living room, making her easier to relax.
"I had enough of her, that's all." Vinyl said in grumpy tone.
"And why is that exactly?" asked Twilight as she lured a quill and a paper from a distance and began to write.
"Because nothing is good for her. She's a picky, spoiled jerk. Whatever I do that girl always find something she can pick on." shouted madly the unicorn.
"For example..." asked her therapist friend.
"Like... there was that one when I went out with a bunch of guys after a party cause they wanted their stuff to be signed, and she was all defensive, saying I could have been attacked or something. What's wrong? They were just fans." she explained.
"I think she just tries to defend you." said Twilight.
"But she does that all the time, saying what I should and should not do. And why this better than that, and if it's that not this she refuses to do that. I swear she'd even drink the apple juice from a wine glass." raged out the unicorn.
"I see... how about the one a few minutes ago?" asked Twilight.
Vinyl sat up to let out a sigh that was pushing against her heart so much, then began to confess "You know, music is a strange business, it changes from time to time and artists need to obey some trends at times in order to keep up their fame. Nowadays this new genre has rapidly taken over, it's called dubtrot, you've probably heard of it. I started practicing this style, I keep listening to my songs over and over to find mistakes and she just can't deal with it, saying it's too noisy and hurt her sensitive, princess ears.".
Twilight just nodded as she kept writing her notes on the paper, and as she finished she asked her final question: "Do you think you can come along once again?".
This wasn't her smartest idea, it triggered something in Vinyl, something furious making the unicorn shout "No! It's over." but that wasn't all. Suddenly an evil aura started to emerge from the musician. She was planning something really wicked and cruel inside to take revenge on her ex. "Hey, Twilight? Would you like to hang out in the spa?" she asked.
"Sure thing" smiled back the purple pony "nothing is better to beat the stress than relaxing a little." The two unicorns left the house and took their way to spend the afternoon in the spa.
"Come in. Feel yourself at home." said Silence as she opened the door to Octavia once they arrived at her house.
"I might be wrong but is this the house where Blossomforth used to live?" noted the cellist.
"Yes, it is. It's quite empty right now, apologies."
"No problem, mind if I take the sofa?"
"No, sure thing." answered the pegasus as she laid down on the other sofa in the living room. "So what is this issue you had with your friend before?" she questioned.
Octavia sighed "Vinyl can be extremely annoying at sometimes. The insecure, phlegmatic way she lives really started to get on my nerves, especially nowadays." She changed her pose to a more comfortable and slightly more charming one "I'm fed up she always gets drunk and I'm the one who needs to carry her home most of the times, and then this dubtrot thing...."
Silence knew this type of music already "...oh god, no." she said as she smacked her face with her hoof.
"Indeed, it has no rhythm and these noises and wobbling sound, it's just painful to hear. What the worst is that she listens to it on full volume and I can't hear even my own thoughts. The last straw was when she set those noises as an alarm today morning and I jumped out from my bed." the refined musician said as she looked away when she came to pause. After a few seconds she continued, her eyes staring at the window "At times like these I think she wants to make me deaf or something.".
She took her attention back to Silence with now a more fierce expression "But this ended today, and Vinyl wear dearly pay for what she have done."
Silence was a little surprised hearing these words. She didn't really except a girl with so much class to take revenge, she wanted to see how it turns out so instead of replying with words, she just nodded with her eyes shut.
However Tavia had something different to do before taking the first step in her plan. "I'm having a time for a massage in the spa however, I guess Vinyl can wait. Mind if I leave my cello, well what left of it in your house meanwhile?"
Silence got shocked "A spa a Ponyville? How come I didn't even know about that? Mind if I go with you, Octavia?" she asked.
"Not at all, be my guest. And please call me Tavia." she replied. Silence nodded again and after putting down her instrument Tavia led her newfound partner to the local spa.
The two pairs went for a sweet relaxation, not suspecting that they both are on the same wavelength. They noticed each other from quite a distance already. Twilight and Silence smiled and waved despite they both knew something is going on, the two ex-friends however were shooting each other with the searing hot lasers of their eyes.
Tavia put her back on Silence when they got close enough to hear each other without shouting. Both parties stopped for a moment, but Tavia was the first who broke the silence "Follow me Silence, I know a place she can practice." she said and raising her head with shut eyes she led her partner away from the enemy.
"Come Twilight, let me show you a song I just wrote about you." responded Vinyl as she put her hoof around her fellow's neck and led her to the opposite way. Both Twilight and Silence knew now what the two ponies' plan is: make the other envious. But Twilight and Silence looked back at each other and with a little excuse they ran back to meet again and discuss.
"This didn't work the way I planned." noted Twilight.
"Indeed. Quite a strange way to take revenge." added Silence "Plan B?" she asked.
"I... don't really have. But we can't give up just yet." encouraged Twilight despite the unfortunate situation.
"I'll spend some more time with her then. Time heals wounds they say. Let's take it slowly." suggested the pegasus.
"Yeah, why not."
Bidding farewell they decided to spend a little more time with their parter from time to time. Silence on the way already had an idea on how to make Tavia fall back in love with Vinyl: She decided to show her the magic of the music.
The Sector II: Episode XIX
Class vs Bass (Part 2)
As Silence arrived home Tavia was already waiting for her, and under waiting I mean packing up her luggage, ready to leave.
"Are you going somewhere?" she asked.
"Yes, I decided to leave Ponyville and move back to Canterlot tomorrow." confessed the musician with a deep, depressed voice. Her face however was still, not the sightliest sign of sadness were shown on it.
"You mean the day after tomorrow? Today is Sunday, Tavia." explained Silence.
The cellist smacked her face at her hoof "Oh yeah, I forgot the trains aren't going on Sunday. Thank you. Mind if I spend the night at you until the time being?" she asked like a lady.
"Not at all, make yourself at home.... though there are no beds here since Blossom left, only these foldable sofas." the pegasus replied as she pulled out the lower part of a sofa, making another layer appear thus turning the furniture into a bed fit for two ponies.
Octavia's face filled with awkwardness but she had no choice. Her new bed didn't seem as comfortable as the old one but was still better than nothing.
"I need to speak to Twilight, I'll be back soon. Also, Trixie lives in the backyard if you need something feel free ask her." said the pegasus as she trotted out the door leaving no time for Tavia to react.
The late afternoon slowly started to fade into the cold night. The pegasus flew back to share her plan with Twilight, who kept pacing up and down the library in nervousness.
"Hey Twilight!" Silence shouted.
"Oh, hello. How Tavia's doing?" asked Twilight. Her voice clearly reflected the mental instability of the unicorn.
"She's fine, look I got a plan."
"You do?!" turned the unicorn back.
"Yeah, but I'll need a DJ set first. If I can convince Tavia that electronic music can be done well-"
"She may make up with Vinyl. Silence you're a genius." brightened up Twilight, but for a short time only "Wait, do you even know how to make music like that?" she doubted the new plan.
"Just the basics, look, try to convince Vinyl about a compromise, if you got her DJ set bring it to my house midnight." told Silence with a serious tone.
Twilight nodded and ran to Vinyl as the sun continued her way down and down, however for her surprise Silence followed her this time. She waited up for her as she noticed that.
"Do you mind if I come with you?" the pegasus asked.
"Not at all." the lavender coated replied as they both slowed down.
"Wow, it's getting colder and colder at night." noted Twilight as she looked around the street, that was way less populated as it was in the midday.
"Well, fall is coming, we should get our scarves soon I guess." responded Silence as she stared at the green, yellow and orange feathered peacocks of the trees in a distance.
Twilight gasped in all of a sudden "You know what this reminds me to? The running of the Leaves." she said with a sweet, excited expression.
"The what?" asked Silence.
"It's a special competition and a tradition here, you should come and see it once. The ponies hold a race through the forests surrounding the town in order to make their leaves fall. It's truly wonderful and fun." told excitedly the unicorn.
Silence giggled "You know, race is almost like chess, it's not only about your speed but your tactics too.".
"How true." replied Twilight "Well, we're here, wait me outside, I need to be alone for this."
"Sure thing, go ahead. Just don't make me wait for too long."
As Twilight headed in to discuss the situation with the DJ, Silence get lost in her own thoughts again, her thoughts about Twilight. But they were no ordinary fantasies, they were questions.
"(I wonder what she thinks about me... and my feelings.... I wonder if I freak her out, or if she is really okay with me. It must be really hard for her.)"
In all of sudden however she realized something, she completely forgot to feed off recently, and the last "change" was a few days ago already. The pegasus were suddenly found herself in a wild race against time. Keeping herself calm she looked around if she could find a place close enough to suck out somepony's blood without anypony noticing it. The sun still kept the west bright, showing that there is still too early to go to sleep. She had nothing to do, but wait and hope the fortune will be on her side this time. The minutes grew bigger and bigger with every small moment as the gray mare kept waiting for the sun to take a rest just like the citizens of the town. After countless amount of waiting a door being shut sounded. Twilight have finished at last, and for some odd reason her presence made Silence forget all the worries in a blink of an eye.
Twilight was carrying an equalizer and a box filled with all kinds of musical electronics, just what the pegasus needed. She still asked her though.
"How did it go?"
"Fine, Vinyl was a bit upset about the entire thing, but accepted to make a trade-off with Octavia. I hope things will work out well." replied Twilight letting out a huge gape afterwards "Ahh, I'm so tired, with all this running up and down...."
"Take a rest, darling. I'll go get the stuff later." advised the pegasus with a lovely tone as she admired the purple beauty, who took her word and headed home. Silence was to follow her when someone stopped her. She looked back, it was Vinyl, standing at the door of her house. "New girl, mind a word?" she asked. Twilight also recognized the voice.
"Go ahead. See you tomorrow then." advised Twilight.
"Good night, then." bid farewell the pegasus. Twilight waved back and returned to her cozy library.
--
Silence headed in the DJs house, while the unicorn let her in first. The pegasus looked were to look around the friendly, cozy living room when a door slowly closed behind her. In the very next second, a blunt ache went through her head. Everything around became blurry as her body fell towards the floor. She landed hard on the rug, not knowing anything but the fact that she just got hit. She turned around on the carpet but the only thing she saw was a giant grey thing flying at her face and hitting her snout badly, so much the back of her head hit the floor once again. She clearly knew now, she was attacked. The pegasus, like the one who're planning on the lottery swung her back hoof hoping it will land a hit on Vinyl. She kicked her right in the face, somewhat under her right eye, making the unicorn step back rubbing her eyelid as she tried regaining her sight. Naturally from the instant loss of sigh made her drop her weapon and gave Silence enough time to make one more quick action. The pegasus wasn't afraid to use her secret magic in such a situation, she grabbed the steel lamp with her telekinetic powers and ripped in out from it's place, throwing it on the top of Vinyl's head, thus making her lose her consciousness instantly. As Silence finally managed to get up on her four hooves, all dizzy, with a still slightly blurry vision. She took a look at the unicorn laying on the ground, her eyes filled with anger as she tried to catch some air.
She quickly ran towards her attacker and without any thinking or sign of carefulness she wildly pierced her fangs into her neck and began to suck her blood out like a rapid beast. Vinyl's blood tasted strangely different, not as good as the other ones', but not bad either. One's blood usually tastes as they'd represent their owner's traits. It seems strange, but a vampire can recognize one's personality by their blood. One would expect Vinyl to have that fuzzy, energetic type of blood since she is the middle of the parties and concerts she's at. But this was proven wrong, her blood was a bit bitter, irritating the tongue as alcohol. The whole thing seemed so.... off. Maybe she is hiding something? Or is it because in the bottom of her heart, she misses her little cellist? There were no time to thing about this, however. Silence left the building as soon as possible and flew home, checking for damage in her system. Other than some minor damages, things weren't as critical as last time. Despite the danger went away, her adrenaline and headache didn't. Entering her own house first thing she noticed was Tavia, sleeping in the unfolded sofa in the living room. With the blanket and pillow of Silence. The pegasus carefully locked the door and sneaked to the other unfolded sofa on her hooftips. She laid down on it, it was pretty comfortable, and tried to fall asleep, which seemed impossible after such events. The ticking of the clock was the sound she couldn't ignore, for a while at least. After some time, she managed to enter the land of dreams anyway.
--
This didn't last long, though. Just a few seconds and the noises from the street and the sound of nature were awakening her. Or were they a few hours? Tavia was already awake and as soon as the pegasus opened her eyes she began to question her "Is this Vinyl's equipment?"
"What... uh, yes, yes it is." she replied.
"If you don't need it anymore, may I tear it into pieces? I know it's not ladylike but I don't want to see anything of her anymore. Hope you understand." the cellist asked as calmly as she'd ask for the time creeping out the pegasus a little.
Silence went silent, this question was quite strange. She chose not to reply this time. Anyway, it was time to get to work. She put on the headphones, put everything out of the way then after she plugged in all the wires to the corresponding place, she began to work on her song. The kicks and snares slowly started to take their place, and the basslines also began to make a shape. Silence didn't even notice but she already skipped breakfast. After hours of hard work, she managed to pull out something, however the result wasn't like the one she actually wanted. Anyway it was time to show it to Tavia.
"Hey, Tavi. I'm finished, do you want to give it a try?"
The cellist doubted that she can convince her, but looked forward the pegasus' try. She put on the headphones, closed her eyes and prepared herself for the worst as the song began to sound. However for her surprise it was quite bearable.... more than bearable. The low basswaves gently massaged her refined ears as the small kicks and soft snares dictated the tempo. Even Silence noticed the musician softly bang her head back and forth along with hitting the wooden floor gently with her hoof, which was a good sign. As the song ended Octavia slowly took off the headphones, made her little messy hair, opened her eyes and made the final judgment "That was dreadful."
Silence didn't respond, just written down the complete failure in her mind. But the earth pony continued her critique "The snares are too loud, the tempo is slightly off, the whole thing seems so empty... yet still....". These last words caught Silence's attention "...it is so captivating. Like a story where your imagination decides the events. Like a coloring book where only the outlines are given. I heard my mind filling these gaps, making this song a whole." Tavia said, as she looked at the shocked pegasus.
"I just feel like I could add my role into this too..." she continued while walking towards the cello case that lied on the floor next in the corner "...if Vinyl wouldn't crash my instrument into pieces." she raised her voice in anger as she opened the it.
"Does this mean you like dubtrot now?" asked the pegasus with a huge smile on her face.
"I don't despise the genre anymore, yes. I should treat all songs on it's own. Thanks for teaching me that." replied Tavia.
"You're welcome. Mind you if I show you something else too?" she asked.
"Uhh, yeah sure. Why not?" answered the other one is slightly confused tone. Silence took out a piece of textile from the shelf and used it as a blindfold, that raised the curiosity even more it the gray mare. The pegasus led her out from the room through the streets, and after some time they stopped.
"You can take off the blindfold now." she told. Tavia did so and for her surprise, the secret was her old girlfriend Vinyl Scratch, who just had the same experience. The two ponies just stared at each other as they held their blindfold in their hooves, but after some moments Vinyl decided to break the silence.
"So, uh, Tavia.... sorry I broke your stuff back then. I know you're have your reasons to be angry at me, but... you know.... I have them too."
"So?" asked the cello player.
"I'd like to make a compromise." replied Scratch as she looked back at her advisor then back to Tavia.
"I'm listening." told the earth pony with eyes shut, not even looking at her ex-marefriend.
"I know I might be a bit sucked in by the sound at times and if you want I can change on that, we will find something to solve it, I'm sure, also I'll try to drink less at parties, so you don't need to embarrass yourself taking me back home." the DJ confessed.
"And?"
"And I won't do anything stupid, I promise." she continued.
But the last two words awakened something in the classy mare. It was the cruel beast inside, sealed away with refinement and modesty, and now it broke free unleashing a smile on her face.
"Interesting offer Vinyl, but a bit late." she said.
Everybody raised her eyebrows from confusion as Octavia turned her back at her ex-marefriend and continued "Too bad I found a new best pony." she said as she put her right hoof on Silence.
"Silence is more refined and understanding than you'll ever be. I know you well enough to know your promises worth nothing anymore. Come Silence!" she finished as she led her partner away from there. Twilight became speechless as they left, Vinyl however collapsed on the ground, bursting into tears.
"Tavia.... Tavia...." she repeated. Barely she could grasp that she has gone, that it's all over.
Twilight shut her eyes and as her head became a heavy orb of lead, she sighed and surrendered "That's it.... I give up."
Silence - extremely confused from the events just nodded and let Tavia bring her back to her house.
Only there did she just realize what happened. Her plan backfired completely and Octavia wants her now, or seemed like that's how she wanted to take revenge on Vinyl. Tavia, who meanwhile packed into here from her old home, checked her packs one more time before the big day, while seeing big hopes in her future which she also spoke out loud.
"Just imagine, only you and me, in a beautiful restaurant in Canterlot, next to the candlelight. It Would be a romantic night."
"You sick, cruel, BITCH!" screamed the pegasus from behind surprising the cellist who literally got stoned for some second, but after she slowly turned her head back she found herself in huge trouble. Silence with pupils shrunk, face red from anger and eyes filled with murder just stood there, but as soon as the cello player took her attention at her, she lowered her tone.
"She just apologized for everything, she wanted to make up with you.... and you... you just rip her heart out and stomp on it?!" she raised her voice once again at the end. Octavia just stood there stoned as the mare continued "Do you think you can just use somebody up as some plaything? And then threw it away when you're bored?... Get out of my house.... GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" she shouted so loudly the echoes sounded back from the other rooms.
However Tavia didn't get out of her house, but ended up in tears as she realized what has she done.
"Oh my god, Vinyl!" she cried up "My best friend, my only friend, what have I done?!". Her tears were falling like rain in a storm, hitting the floor hard. Silence, knowing her hot-head carried her away too far walked up to her and put her hoof on the back of her head, ashamed from what she just said "It's okay.... we all make mistakes. We all get binded by the beautiful and sweet tasting illusion of the revenge and hatred at times." she said, gently petting the mare's head.
"Bu- but what now? I've messed it up and-"
"Shhhh, it's alright, you and Vinyl are like Black and White, Light and Darkness, you can't live without each other. Black mistress, there is always a rubber to clean out the mistakes of your picture, be it small or big. Visit Vinyl and clean up the mess you caused, I'll be following you." the pegasus advised, turning truly inside-out personality-wise as she gently relieved her from the last tears. Octavia nodded and the two ponies ran to Vinyl to do so.
As they arrived nopony seemed to be at home at first, but after looking around a bit more they found Twilight, waiting in front of the door of the bathroom.
Silence immediately asked "Twilight where is Vinyl? We came to put an end to this.". Twilight looked grumpy at first seeing them again after what they have done, but after noticing Tavia's all-red eyes and sniffing she knew everything.
"She went to wash her face. I'm not sure what is taking her so long, though." sounded the answer.
"Long? How long?!" Silence asked as the panic quickly began to take over her entire body, including her voice, as she noticed the sound of water pouring as wildly as a wild river inside the bathroom.
"A few minu-" Twilight didn't even finish her word but both her and Tavia instantly found out why the pegasus became so freaked out.
"Open the door!" shouted Silence, as they all grabbed the knob and started to yank it like in a tug-of-war.
"It's locked."
"Vinyl don't do it!!" cried up Tavia as her face became all soaking wet from her fresh salty tears she shed, while beating the door with all the power she could bring out from her hooves. "Please, Vinyl, stop! Vinyl!!" she continued as her voice became weaker and weaker.
"Twilight!!" shouted the pegasus.
"I'm on it!" replied the unicorn as her horn started to glow and in a blink of an eye she disappeared in a purple flash. As soon as she arrived inside, Twilight pulled out Vinyl from the bathtub that was so full the water flow out from it, expanding into everywhere in the room. She laid the soaking wet DJ on the floor and opened the door Tavia was still banging as the keys were left inside it. The two other ponies ran in as the door opened.
Tavia leaned at her beloved screaming "No, Vinyl!!". There were no signs of life in the mare, but that didn't stop the cellist from believing. She bent to her love's head and inhaled her precious breath through her mouth, again and again. Then she put her hooves on her heart and desperately tried to revive her.
"One! Two! Three! Four! Wake up!!" she screamed hopelessly as her bitter tears were falling as hailstorm. A few more inhales then the desperate cycle started again "One! Two!-" however her counting was interrupted by coughs, coughs of life.
"Vinyl!" she shouted as the cellist hugged her all-wet lover, the hug turned into a sweet kiss, sweet yet salty from the tears of despair.
"Ta-vi? Wh-"
"Shhh you idiot." silenced her the earth pony as she snuggled her one and only thigh, as she'd never let her go. Twilight and Silence decided not to ruin this precious moment of theirs and keep their mouth shut.
"So... you're not.... mad at me anymore?" asked Vinyl in an extremely weak whisper of a dying.
"Why would I be, retard." answered Octavia, looking deep at Vinyl's eyes.
"I'm... so.... glad." responded the DJ, as her eyes slowly shut, her weak body felt like giving it up now.
"Hey. Hey! Don't leave me, again. Vinyl!" said Tavia gently slapping her friend to keep her awake "Come, let me just... help you up to the bedroom.". Twilight and Silence helped to put Vinyl on Octavia's back.
"I'll call nurse Redheart." said Twilight and sprinted away as soon as she could. Silence and Octavia laid the unicorn down on her bed, then Silence quickly ran for a towel to dry her. Few minutes afterwards Twilight came back along with a white, light-pink maned pony, Nurse Redheart. They showed the nurse where Vinyl was resting.
"Should we leave them?" asked Silence at the door of the bedroom.
"Yes, that'd be the best." replied Twilight.
The two ponies left their house in complete quiet, but as they made it to the streets they were gladly sighed that this nightmare is finally over.
"Mission complete." noted the pegasus with a proud smile on her face.
"Yeah, finally." added Twilight "This was enough adrenaline for my lifetime, I guess."
Silence chuckled then started wondering, gazing at the now orange sky "Weren't they beautiful together? If only I'd have somebody who'd hold me in her arms when I'm down. Who would catch me when I'm falling. Who I-"
"Okay, I get it cheesypants." giggled back Twilight as they were heading home to outbend themselves after such a dramatic events.
Dear! Sweetheart! Darling!
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.
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.
The Sector II - Episode XXII
Farewell
"(Isn't she beautiful?)" asked Silence in herself, as she adored the wonderful purple unicorn quietly sleeping in her wooden bed, next to Silence's keys on her cupboard. It was her last day here after all, as tomorrow, as they agreed with Twilight, Rarity and Inkie Pie knows she'll be travelling back to Manehatten for family reasons. The true reason however is more power. She's going to Tartarus, the unknown, and it's not clear if she ever makes it back.
It is understandble to take a last look at our beloved, right? Of course, Silence didn't only want to just stare at her, she wanted to taste her as well, though the mesmerizing beauty of Twilight kept her mind busy for a few minutes. After she was ready to take some of her love's blood, she gently bent over Twilight's neck, her lips were dripping from anesthetic as they softly touched Twilight's neck. As Silence however was to imprint her fangs into Twilight's neck a horribly loud noise came from outside.
The entire thing was like an extreme whiplash echoing through the night sky, then another one was sound, and a whole series of more. Twilight woke up in an instant to the loud noise, so quickly she saw literally nothing at first. Silence, as a lighting dashed out from the front door of Twilight's room, barely grasping what just happened, while Twilight was rubbing her eyelids.
"What was that?" she asked looking out the window, where the noise came from. Nothing unusual was seen, only the ponies opening their windows searching for the same thing as she did. She turned back to check if her assistant is okay. Spike was only frightened and speechless, shivering in his bed, but nothing special. Twilight decided to investigate the situation, but as the chilly wind hit her as she opened the balcony door, the unicorn changed her mind.
Silence was rushing back home furiously, waiting for her clan who, as they planned were scrapping remained materials. Only the pegasus and her clan knew what these strange whiplashes were, as they knew it was one of them, sounding it. Silence arrived at home, walked down to the basement with heavy stomps, where Orison and MERCY were waiting for her. They all knew why Silence was mad, but they knew she won't be angry at them. The pegasus took a look around, then sat down and patiently waited. It didn't took her a few minutes but Spade arrived, carrying a arm-sized... thing that has an end similar to a cannon.
"Spade?!" shouted up the pegasus furiously as she stood up stomping closer and closer to her clanmate.
Spade instantly crouched from fear and cried "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I... I had to."
"You had to what?!"
"I had to- to defend myself. There was that huge scorpion-lion thing attacked me. I was scared."
"How much scared?" screamed Silence at her.
"Very much."
"This much?"
"No." cried Spade, shivering from the fear.
"Less?"
"No, more."
"Then how come you didn't blast MY head off yet?!?" asked Silence, then in a blink of an eye, with a huge sigh she calmed down. MERCY and Orison were frightened, rarely they see Silence so angry, completely behaving like some beast, turning inside-out.
The pegasus turned into her bizarre-looking friend "Okay, MERCY, can you modify this little PPC for me, so it'd be competible with the Mana Output?"
"Sure, just... just give me a few minutes." she answered, quickly grabbing the device and beggining to work on with her keen claws.
Meanwhile, Vision also arrived, without any greeting her eyes' attention was quickly seduced by MERCY's work. "Woah, what is that thing?"
"Uh, it's a PPC.... don't tell me you don't know what it is." asked Silence in a deep tone, while helping up her fellow, Spade.
"Hey, I was standing in front of the stupid radars and stuff, don't expect me to know these things you were fighting with." shouted back Vision.
"PPC, as Pulsation-driven Plasma Cannon. Mostly the interceptors used it back then. It fires small shots of burning plasma at high vecotity, with a high rate of fire and... much noise." she finished, taking a now friendly look at the responsible member.
"Ah, so this was that whiplash-thing. Awesome."
"Done!" shouted up MERCY, making Silence grab the weapon with magic and carefully placing it on her horn. It fit perfectly as two puzzles. The look however cracked Vision up, making her brust out in epic laughter.
"What's it?" asked Silence.
"It's.... a bit longer than I though." replied MERCY, painfully trying to hold back the laughter.
Silence touched the device and she felt, it's indeed too long to remain behind the mask. She turned it on anyway, that was an even more hilarious experience to Vision, who now fell to the ground. MERCY also began to chuckle now, that also turned into laughter as Silence blinked. The blinks literally made Vision scream. It was, for some reason funny to see that thing sticking out from behind the fake eye.
"Oh my, that was good." said MERCY as she acted like she'd wipe a tear from her eye, which was obviously not possible, then continued "I can cut a bit from the muzzle if you'd like, but it won't be that accurate."
"I'd be grateful." replied Silence, with a fierce voice.
After about an hour, they were done for tonigh. A quick revision of the plan, equipping the now good looking PPC and everyone was almost ready to dive into the future, but Silence shouted up for a last order:
"One more thing. If anything comes in here, anything... shot it on sight." She turned away seeing the other's approval, and decided not to hunt this time. Packing away some food and drink in her saddlebag, she waited for the sun's sign before starting her journey to the unknown.
The tomorrow didn't wait. Twilight woke up in the morning as usual, saw the keys her friend left there, and without the thought of breakfast she took a look at Silence's house, that was so quiet, so empty, just like a graveyard.
On a shelf, however, a little note was calling the unicorn:
"Twilight, food is in the fridge, medicines in the cupboard behind the mirror in the bathroom. You can find a few books to entertain yourself in the reading room if you'd like. Feel yourself at home.
Your love
Silence."
Twilight instantly turned her look towards the green room at her right, from where a few bookshelves were winking at her.
She quietly walked in, the room's green wallpapers and wooden furniture gave a nice, cozy feeling, but something was missing. The unicorn took a look around if her friend got any books she may not own. Twilight, being a librarian recognized most of books, which she already read, though some seemed a bit off, why would a pegasus want to read books about magic-related things. Blossomforth's parents were pegasi, and not even living here, not to mention she wasn't interested in magic at all either.... at least not secretly. This thing though, instead of bugging Twilight, more like made her chuckle, thinking Silence may want to be the first magical pegasus in Equestria. It's all about determination, and she knew Silence had it, and such seemingly impossible and far goal was rather... cute.
Looking at the desk, a small piece of paper was flouting at the unicorn. Maybe another note? No, the whole drawer was filled with papers, papers of Twilight.
This creeped Twilight out a little, as a whole gallery full of dreadful drawings of her was lying in front of her. But not only drawings, also short poems filled with beautiful methaphores, yet strange rhymes. She kept browsing in the artist's private collection when suddenly, out from the strange drawings a beautiful, tribal-styled black and white pattern winked at her. It was mysetious yet so obvious, weird but beautiful at the same time. It was a symbol about Twilight. She felt as the beautiful methaphores have been forged in to this simple masterpiece. Twilight just couldn't get her eyes off it, especially from the message under it:
"My inspiration."
Knocks on the door interrupted the silence, and Twilight's thoughts about her friend. She hurried to open it, and for her surprise, it was Applejack, with a relatively worried expression.
"Twiligh' I thought ya fell asleep over ya'll studies or somethin', not openin' the door. What ya doing at Silence's house, did ya have a sleepover partay?" she asked.
Twilight chuckled "That'd be great, but truth is she'll be away for a few days. So, what were you looking for?".
"Mind ya if I ask for a lil' help, Applebloom crashed the barrels an' the sugar of the apple juice is makin' the whole place sticky as a glue factory. Have any fancy magic that coul' help?" she asked filled with worry and a bit of embarrassment that she had to call her friend for help again.
The unicorn giggled, locked the door and with a little blink of magic she made the keys disappear.
"I'm sure we can find a way out that sticky situation." shr giggled as the two friends headed to the place of the incident.
On the way, though AJ noticed something is different with her friend. Twilight, instead of watching the road rather stared at the scenery or the sky, and eventually tripping in a rock.
"You alright hun? You're a bit hocus-pocused today." the earth pony noted.
"It's just... it's so different without Silence. I miss her voice, her kindness, her passion." Twilight responded with a sigh following her statement.
Applejack gave a strange, questioning look at her friend, then looked back at the road and replied "Well, I'm a lil' glad she is not here. I mean, she IS nice an' kind an' stuff, but those eyes, those strange things on her flank, that wierd way she flies, it jus' doesn' hit mah fancy when somepony's that much of a special snowflake."
The last two words made Twilight stop for a moment "A special snowflake?" she asked, "...A SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE! Applejack you're a genius." she shouted, putting both her hooves on her friends back as she stood in front of her.
"I'm a what now?"
"Don't you see? Silence is way more different than other ponies, she is special, so the odd-shaped cutie mark is a black snowflake since it also counts as special." the jovial unicorn explained as she began to lead the way forwards.
"Uh, don't wanna ruin your theory but somethin' is a bit off here. You can't earn a cutie mark just for being special." AJ interrupted.
"That's true, but Silence wasn't born special, she did many things to be different than the others. Art, poetry, music, literature, you have to learn all these. I guess the feeling of being different influenced her so much she wants to be unique as many ways as she can."
"Ya' really think that's the case?" asked the farmer doubtfully.
"For now, that seems as the most logical reason. Only she knows the truth." replied Twilight, suddenly dropping her cheerfulness and looking forward, right at her friend's house, when a voice interrupted from above.
"That girl is up to something, I'm sure."
"Rainbow Dash! Are ya spying on us or somethin'?" shouted AJ upwards in surprise.
"And what do you mean by that?" asked Twilight with a sightly high-tempered voice.
"Nah, chill out guys, I was just taking a nap when I heard you coming by." the pegasus replied as she flew down "But that Silence girl, she is doing something. Didn't you notice how Celestia became a regular visitor since she came, and all those strange events like the one today? I bet she's behind them all." whispered Dash.
"Rainbow Dash!" shouted up Twilight in fury "I'm extremely disappointed at you. Silence would do nothing like that, even if she could. She is a gentle, artistic and clever pegasus, regardless of all her... strangeness."
Dash took a look around a took a step forwards Twilight, whispering these words "Think what you want, Twi, but when you see her on the other side, don't run to me crying." Finishing her sentence, the pegasus flew away with a grumpy face.
"Don' mind her suga'cube." comforted her AJ.
Twilight let out a sigh, and began to continue her way forward. "I know... I wish I could make them trust each other a little more..." she said.
The apple trees around were all harvested, their leaves all yellow and orange. However the smell of apples could be already felt calling from the cellar. Applejack opened the door, the entire cellar was smelling from the apple cider. Twilight felt the sugar of the dried cider sticking on her hooves. After a few more seconds of looking around as she kept stamping in one place, she stopped, her horn glowing, her body bending over as she began to perform some sort of magic.
The cellar began to glow purple all around as some wierd white layer began to appear. After it got thicker and thicker, suddenly it popped off as some popcorn, with the difference being that they were sugarcubes. The now not sticky, not disgusting sugar covered up the floor.
Applejack started giggling "Nice, thank ya.... suga' cube." she laughed.
Twilight wiped off the sweat, smiled back and with another little trick she piled up the sweets.
"Are you sure you can handle that?" she asked.
"Don' worry Twi, from here we can take care of things. Thank you so much." replied AJ, even grabbing and shaking the hoof of her friend.
"Anytime." chuckled back Twilight, then waving back she left the farm.
It felt nice to help a friend... a friend... Twilight, the futher she walked the worse she felt deep in her heart. It mugged her that Rainbow might be right, after all she found a book filled with dangerous and forbidden spells right in Silence's bed. What could have been more obvious than that? Yet still, Silence couldn't use them, she is a pegasus after all, isn't she? The entire thing made no sense, and maybe this chaos, that mysteriousness was what strenghtened unicorn's feelings towards her. Twilight was aware of what she felt towards Silence wasn't friendship anymore.
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.
The Sector II: Episode XXVII
Tartarus - Day 5: The escape
"Don't worry, Silence. We'll be there soon." Whisper explained in her echoing voice with hope leaking from her words. "You must be really tired after letting out the steam on her. Rest now." she added, looking at the slumbering pegasus at the back of the boat.
They were getting closer and closer to the dock of the Castle, with the fan in the back of the boat. Silence slowly woke up after she felt the boat stopping, and honestly, she didn't even remember how did she get there or when did she felt asleep first place. All she remembered that she was carried away by Whisper. She got up on her fours quickly though, after realizing where they are, grabbing the fan and running upwards the hill to the castle.
"Let's go, we have no time!" she said, surprising Whisper. Silence didn't care about power anymore, all she wanted was to get out of this place as soon as possible. She ran inside, without hesitation and after noticing Princess Nirvana admiring the peach tree in the middle of the central square she quickly ran up to her.
"Princess, we brought back your fan." Silence said, handing the relic to the ghost, Whisper arriving in the back.
"Oh, my you really did?" she shouted up in joy, but as soon as she saw the condition of her beloved fan, her face turned shocked and depressed.
"I'm sorry. Executioner Gaia removed all the feathers."
"It's okay... It's the meaning it matters you know..." she explained. "A deal is a deal I guess, and judging by your look, you wouldn't like to wait." she sighed. "There is an ancient runestone located north of the entrance shrine, in the middle of a small field. The rune was used to teleport back the living to where they belong."
"Great. I'm on my way." Silence said in a huge hurry.
"BUT!" shouted Nirvana "The rune requires time and energy to charge up."
"And the mana eruption would rule in the demons..." Silence stopped, looking at her hooves.
"Let us assist you." Nirvana said, looking at Whisper than back to the pegasus. "It's the least we can do."
"Thank you. Thank you so much." replied Silence turning around and flying back to the boat, the two ghosts following her on her last journey, aiding in her escape.
"Here we are." Nirvana said as they arrived. Grass filled the entire land, and in the middle, a giant stone stood with a sign in the top middle and gems sticking out on it's sides. Princess Nirvana slowly walked towards the stone, her mind filled with memories when she first activated it. She put her hooves on of the gems with her eyes shut, when a small aura appeared under her feet. The gem began to glow, as well as a strange humming sound were heard from inside the runestone. The device was charging, and the flow of the excessive mana was felt in the air.
"Come, the more of us touches the stone, the faster it charges." she explained, making the two other girls touch a gem as well, triggering the same effect and raising the pitch of the sound by a little.
"Ready up, they'll be here soon." she said, equipping her fan she was to use as a weapon. Whisper readied her spear and Silence charged her canon, preparing for the incoming horde.
Time slowed down for them, the sheer adrenaline made their senses keen and sharp as a blade. Seconds became minutes and the corrupted army could be heard from a distance, louder and louder.
The trio was ready for the incoming. Huge chunks of shadows started to stain the white mist, and a second later, the firsts arrived. Silence quickly changed position, but kept her left hoof on the gem, blasting three rushing demons into ashes. Several more came, only for getting slaughtered by Whisper's spear. Silence quickly changed on the plan, as she could protect the stone from a range, she decided to leave the girls charge while she blasts everything incoming from above. They were coming from all directions now, mindlessly running and flying towards the stone. Silence started to lose control of the situation, eventually forcing a few to break through her lines.
"Thirty percent!" shouted up Nirvana from below, pulling out her fan and swiping the demons away, who turned into practices in the air. Whisper also stabbed them wildly despite she could still touch the gem as she was swinging her spear with her tail. Eventually a demon grabbed her leg and was to pull her away, but the ferrymare stabbed it in the face, turning it into ash. Whisper released the gems and began to fight for real this time.
Meanwhile Silence was already chased by a squad of corrupted pegasi, but due to their slow speed, the gray mare rather focused on bombarding the increasing amount of ground units. Between the continuous moans of the dieing horde and the neverending loud whiplashes a voice shouted up: "Fourty percent!"
"Damn, we can't make it." Silence replied, hearing that. The situation was desperate already. Princess Nirvana also released the gem, and with her fan, she pointed up high in the sky.
"Shield!" she shouted, and from the ornament, a giant, purple field erupted towards the ground, forming a part-transparent pyramid with sparkles erupting inside its pattern. The others quickly noticed the protective field that reached out far to cover most of the stone, except it's top part. They rushed inside when Nirvana opened a small hole in it, to make them be able to. The demons, despite Silence's constant fire still were hitting the shields, and the pegasi aimed at the top. With constant kicking they tried to destroy the rune, but Silence targeted them.
Whisper now got some time to release her ultimate attack, she began to swing her spear in a wide arc... when it accidentally hit the stone, leaving a huge cut on it. Seems like there were not enough space for that, and because of that the ferrymare kicked the ground .
"Princess, could you extend the field a little?" she shouted while wildly cutting her foes from behind the force field. Nirvana was sweating and shaking her head, signing that she can't.
"Can you move it, at least, so she'll have enough space?" Silence suggested
"But then the stone..."
"I don't care, we only need three jewels at most, it worth the loss."
The two ghosts looked together when Nirvana slowly began to move backwards, focusing all her power in the worn fan, with the others slowly following her and holding the fire. The pyramid became smaller and smaller but as soon as they got enough space Whisper began to swing her spear faster and faster. Releasing a giant pillar demolishing a platoon of demons around. Silence quickly left the area to give some aerial support as well as Nirvana ran back to cleanse the other side of the runestone from the corrupted who were kicking, punching, biting the device in order to bring it down. One jewel out of the five has been already destroyed. She quickly leaped to the other one to charge when a demon bit her in her side. Silence, hearing the scream shot the few foes off before they could burden the royal ghost.
"Thank you." she said, standing up and trying again. "Fifty four percent." she said after touching the gemstone.
"Where did they go?" Silence asked, noticing the enemy stopped attacking.
"Are they... fleeing?" Whisper asked rushing to the gemstone to charge.
"I doubt, I can still hear them."
"They're regrouping." pointed out Nirvana who was also charging.
"What? That's impossible. They don't have senses nor emotions!" Whisper replied in surprise. "What should we do?!"
"Charge." answered Silence, making the others release a "Huh?" in doubt and shock. "If they really are sentient, a sudden counterattack should confuse them real good."
"That's a horrible plan, we should charge the stone before they overwhelm us." replied Nirvana.
"Okay, you two charge the stone then, I'll strike them from above." Silence attempted a compromise, making the girls nod.
"Wait! Take this." Nirvana shouted, taking out her old, casual, magenta textile fan and levitating in front of the pegasus.
"Echantment eleven! Flames of Tartarus." she said, making a fiery aura envelope the fan. Then with a swift move she closed it.
"Enchantment nine! Prayers from the Peach garden." she added, covering it with a magenta aura, with peach blossoms falling from it. After she finished, she handed her old fan to Silence with the sentence "You'll know how to use it."
Silence nodded and went on her way to slay some demons. As she arrived, she saw them standing up in nice, straight lines, waiting for enough fellows for a final rush. Silence took out her fan and with the element of surprise she swept across them with it. From the end of the fan, gigantic flames born, melting everything it touched. Silence flew in a low altitude, constantly slaughtering her confused targets on the ground. It didn't took her long however, to catch the pegasi demons attention who rushed after her. She raised her altitude, stopped, closed the fan and pointed towards the incoming targets behind her, releasing a number of purple orbs piercing through the air, leaving opaque peach blossoms behind. The orbs pierced through the targets.
Flying in circles, Silence kept slaughtering the enemy that began to charge towards the stone with all their power. As soon as she thought the girls can't hold it alone, though she flew back to her position and kept defending the rune. The situation was desperate, the demons kept coming closer and closer, like a flood of dark grey river, the remained ash of the ones defeated flying all over the misty battlefield. With every second they came closer and closer.
"Ninety percent!" shouted Nirvana, barely but deflecting an incoming attack. They lost control over the events. The pegasi on the top were already demolishing the structure, heading down and down. Whisper in a sudden received a huge blow on the back of her head, forcing her to the ground. All she saw there were demons, slowly captivating her, beginning to stain her white, ghostly coat with their corruption. Nirvana, sacrificing her jewel rushed to help her. Blasting the enemy away, she grabbed the ferrymare and forced her behind alicorn-built body. The monsters destroyed two other gemstones in the process, not to mention the great damage they did to the stone as well. Infinite amount of cracks covering it and many parts fallen out the entire device was about to collapse upon them.
"Run!" Silence shouted desperately trying to withhold the attacks. Nirvana without any thinking took her fellow ghost mate and flew up high, cutting a demon in its throat with her long, sharp horn as she noticed its attack. It didn't took much for the demons the smash that gemstone as well. Silence was alone now, overwhelmed completely by the horde. It was just a matter of time before they get her. She forced her back to the gemstone and kept shooting and shooting. But a corrupted soul touched her leg, causing their bone-chilling pain. She shot it, but as soon as she aimed down another one caught her head, pulling her mane, then another one forcing itself in her spine, eventually she was on the ground, screaming from the unbearable, chilly pain. Right before the demons smashed the last gemstone into practices, a giant white beam emitted from the middle of the stone, only for a moment, before the entire device collapsed in its pieces.
"(Uhhh... where am I? What happened?)" Silence asked, slowly waking up from unconsciousness. Opening her eyes, she saw nothing but darkness, darkness everywhere. From a distance a huge but dim, green lighting appeared as if it would have came from behind a cloud. And another one to her right, this time a pink one. Such dim, cloudy lightings appeared all around her, as if she'd be in a huge tube. She recognized this place quickly, letting out a heavy sigh.
"(Great... stuck in between the time-space continuum again.)" she thought. Her sadness however quickly disappeared as she noticed the great possible opportunity. "(Wait, if I'm here, then here must be the...)" she added turning her head around looking for something. Didn't took long to her, but she found it: a strange base of some sort with a shape similar to a cog's.
"(Home sweet home... I guess.)" she said, and in a platform she landed and opened the thick, metal door by entering digits on its right panel that was filled with numbers. Arriving there a familiar environment welcomed her, a giant hall of white filled with beautiful marble pillars. Stairs dressed in red carpets were leading up and down, as well as corridors to the central, western and eastern wings. Silence took her way to the basement quickly, where her hull was made and the resources were held, except the food which's part was empty. So many different kind of things that she thought will be just a burden, but now they all would be so useful. She already knew what she needed: tools, the most important things to repair the core. Grabbing a smaller backpack from the self in the other corner she grabbed all varies of tools she could, scissors, knifes, sawblades as well as magical equipments like charms and talismans. Other than them, she packed a few lighter weapons as well, but before she decided it is time to go, her attention got caught by another strange device, put away in the corner as if none would need it anymore. It was an old radar, basically two huge metallic "claws" spinning on a pole. It seemed like a reversed crane, but smaller. She disconnected the top part and put it away, could come in handy sometime. The backpack was sort of inconvenient as it was bigger than her, but that didn't stop her at all. She grabbed it with her mouth and carried it that way. She hurried to the central wing, where the last coordinates were still in the computer: the coordinates that rip a hole in the time-space continuum she can once again reach Equestria. Desperately and slowly she tried not to mess up anything on the touchscreen with her giant hooves as she set the coordinates again. With the last button, a strange humming noise were heard for a moment, then it stopped. Silence knew the race with time has begun. She ran outside, shutting all the doors. Far away, the black, interdimensional stormclouds were ripping open, allowing the lightings and sparks from behind them to erupt. She flew there with all her power before it slowly regenerated itself. With the bag in her mouth she flew straight into the white hole, ending up in a completely dark space yet once again.
"(I just hope it is that place...)" she though, lighting the end of her weapon revealing the stone that surrounded her. With a huge relief she let out an enormous breath that was pushed her heart so uncomfortably. Quickly flying out from the cave she ended up in a forest she already knew. A quick orientation above the woods helped her locate her new home she longed for for so long: Ponyville. Not wasting any time she headed right there, cutting through the night with her wings.
She arrived at her house, but the door was locked. It took her a few seconds realizing she gave the keys to her beloved Twilight. She didn't want to bother the unicorn now though, instead she rather used the back door. The keys of the back door were hidden in a flowerpot. She opened the door, and took her way to the basement, where her clan was also asleep. She gently and quietly put down the backpack and left the room. As soon as she closed the basement door though, a familiar voice called her.
"Silence!" it whispered. It was Twilight Sparkle. Seems like she really did a nice job securing the house "I missed you so much." she added, rushing and hugging the pegasus. It was understandable, though, even Silence herself didn't know how long she's been away.
She hugged back her love gently "I missed you too." she replied.
"Silence..." said Twilight "I was thinking, about us." she confessed, while still in the arms of the gray mare. Silence got shocked, is this what she thought it was? Could it be...
"Yes, sweetheart?" she asked.
"We've been friends for such a long time, and since you went away I realized that it's just not the same without you." Twilight replied, softly loosening her hold on her friend and gazing in her green and red eyes. Silence froze there, her insides turned all upside down, yet her lust was taking over and over, she wanted Twilight, right that moment, she was so close it felt strange, as when you accomplish a goal you've been striving for for so long and so hard. She couldn't reply.
"I love you, silly." Twilight finished, leaning closer, her muzzle touching Silence's gently, her tongue slowly opening her mouth and peeking in. They were... kissing. It was unbelievable for the first few moments, but Silence shut her eyes afterwards and hugged her beloved lavender as tightly, yet gently as she could. Their tongues dueling between their mouth and the soft touch of her hooves stroking through each other gave such a warm, wonderful feeling, yet still it felt as a parasite would crawl inside her chest. For a small moment they retreated to get a small breath, but the small bridge of their drool between their hot lips kept them chained together. However, Silence played dirty the next round, and went to her partner's neck instead.
"N-No! Not there. Aah!" asked Twilight nicely, but it felt for deaf ears, Silence was already licking her neck. Her moan made Silence lose her mind. She couldn't withhold her lust anymore. Her wings opened, the veins inside pumping wildly as she lodged her fangs into the unicorn. After the very first suck, however her eyes opened wide, she took her fangs out of Twilight and instead of hugging her, she grabbed her hoofpits, tripped her and with a quick move thrown her above her back. Twilight hit the ground hard with her back, but not as hard as Silence's voice afterwards.
"What are you?" she asked in a high volume.
Twilight brusted out in laughter "Ah, what a shame. I thought we can spend an entire night together. Maybe it's better this way though, I have to watch for my shape." In a sudden, a green aura traveled through her from head to hooves, changing the beautiful pony into a dark grey creature. Her eyes blue, without any pupils, only a gradient fading to white, indicating its place. Her body filled with holes at her legs and in her insectoid-looking wings coming out from her green shell, her mane becoming long fins and fangs sticking out from her mouth. Instead of answering the given question though, she rather commented on Silence's body language.
"You do like what you see, huh?" she laughed showing a more inviting pose to the pegasus, her voice sort of distorted as two oft them would speak. "That guard wasn't exaggerating when she called you a walking pantry." However before the pegasus could scream at her from losing temper, she continued, trying to get up.
"I can't answer your questions because it'd take for sooo long, so I get to the point: You're cordially invited to Froud Valley. We'll have plenty of time there to discuss... things." she giggle and winked seductively as she passed the gray mare, heading out the window. "Oh, and don't worry about the girl, she is asleep, like everypony else." she added turning back her head in front of the door, before transforming into a white, curly maned blue pegasus and flew away. Who was her? And what was her?
The Sector II: Episode XXVIII
Revelations
"Here you go mister Cycfox." calmed a gentle voice a one-eyed fox almost two times as bigger as her, as they slowly walked inside a cave in the middle of the Everfree Forest. Ponyville has been besieged by a destructive creature yet again at dawn, but luckily they had Fluttershy who quickly calmed the actually not even rampaging spirit, guiding it back home. The pegasus picked up her firefly lantern as they headed inside, where the monster was living.
As soon as she saw him feel relieved and comfortable, Fluttershy continued "Necf fime if you get loft in the foreft, juft look for the OW-". Her hoof slipped on the wet stones, making her body fall like a ragdoll and hit the ground hard, with enough force to break the glass of her lantern. The fireflies weren't lazy, as soon as they got the opportunity they seized it escaping in multiple directions.
"Oh no, please, fireflies, come back, it's dangerous inside." she whispered, but nothing listened to her. As they went deeper and deeper Fluttershy reached the dead end of the cavern. The bugs had nowhere to run now, but as soon as something strange caught the attention of the pegasus she could care less. It was from behind the ugly, dark green moss. Was it glass? What would such thing do here? She swept it away and what she found was beyond imagination. Not only that, it was beyond comprehension. The pegasus was filled with
fear as she was looking at these strange, egg-shaped... things, but she was more afraid of what she was behind them? Her little body shaking like an earthquake she stepped back slowly, running out from the cave in such a hurry she stepped into a shard of glass, cutting her hoof. She let out a small "Eep!" but continued running.
"I must show this to Zecora, these are not natural. Not natural at all."
Silence yawned a huge one, as she woke up from her half-bed-half-sofa, long time she did so
and she admitted that too. "Ah, I needed such a sleep for so long." The warmth of home was all she needed after such an adventure. She turned her head to the right, only to get reminded to the past event by the fan of the princess who rules the underworld. Though it was cracked and the energy that rose peach petals and flames lost, it made a nice decoration and was good for what a fan supposed to do. It was time to see how the other's are doing and she started with the one who she loved the most, especially now, Twilight Sparkle.
The sun was shining as wonderfully as it never did, or else it felt like that at least, something one would not really except in late fall. But despite all these thing something was bothering her. The royal guards were pacing up and down the street as they'd look for something. It was really an unnerving sight, not for her but for everypony, and this was written on their face. She knocked on the library door, and a few moments later a purple face welcomed her.
"Silence!"
"Twilight!" they shouted, giving each other a friendly, warm hug. "I'm glad to see you again." the unicorn added.
"Ah, she must be the girl you were talking about, right?" a voice of a mare told from afar. A voice of a cerise coat and a curly mane of rose, violet and beige, and an... alicorn?! Silence was shocked by the sight.
"Silence, this is Cadence, my sister-in-law. Cadence, Silence."
Silence was about to bow down, but Cadence was already reaching for her, ending up in a gentle hoofshake at the end.
"Pleased to meet you, Twilight told a lot about you." the princess said, making the pegasus blush a little in modesty. It felt nice that Twilight was caring about her why she was away, or hopefully she meant that.
"Twilight, what are these guards doing here?" Silence asked.
Twilight sighed "The black magic eruptions are coming from around this area, possibly the Everfree Forest. We need to be sure." she explained, her sight pointed outwards the window. She was clearly afraid of something, but as soon as she saw an ivory coated unicorn trotting along the street suddenly something clicked. "Oh, by the way, Rarity was looking for you."
"(Probably the job...)"
"She's having a bit of an uprise in her business right now and seems like Spike is not really enough for her." she added, her tone switching to a little mad tone.The thought of her speculations already made Silence chuckle, and with a healthy smile she left before Twilight pointed her out where her friend was heading.
As soon as she closed the library's door, though Twilight let out a heavy breath of relief "Finally..."
"So she is Silence. Are you sure you want this? She seems rather like a cutie than a freak." Cadence asked, as she stared at the grey mare catching up for the white one ending up in a delightful talk.
"Trust me, if you'd have read half of that thing I did, you'd also want that." Twilight replied with a low-toned voice as she headed towards her desk.
"That's a shame, but still, I think this poisoning is a bit of an overkill."
"No, it's not." Twilight shook her head as she picked up the book she was reading, with the recipe inside of an elixir called High Level Love Poison. "If I manage to reverse the polarity of the potion by a poison joke, Silence is going to hate me more than anything, but since she won't drink the entire thing she won't be my blood feud not will be addicted to me. And if that don't work I still have the plan B." she added, closing it and heading outwards. "Okay, I begin the phase one, and visit Zecora for the herbs." she said with confidence, assuming that the success is one hundred percent guaranteed.
"So, nothing special is going on? Nothing to help with or anything?" Silence asked in the boutique's workroom.
"No, as fast as it came it went. Too bad." Rarity replied, slowly strolling towards her worktable, picking up the pencil and the paper as well as bringing her sofa there. She laid down, made herself comfortable and began to stare at the ceiling. Than she pointed her sight towards the paper while playing with pencil, but still nothing.
"Seems like do need some help, after all." Silence chuckled. "If I can help with coming up with ideas..."
"Oh, sure darling, fetch a paper and a pencil if you'd like." Rarity smiled back, gazing deep in her thoughts as she drew a form of a pony on her sheet. Silence also did the same, but she didn't stop there. She also drew a mask afterwards, and after a little thinking a simple looking dress. It also caught the attention of the artist.
"I see you got something, dear." Rarity smiled, looking at the horrible drawing Silence made. The dress looked like a normal one, with the corset in the part of the chest, instead of the back.
"Mmmhmm..." the pegasus confirmed loudly "And what if we're like, cut it here, and then the rest of it is something different?" she turned towards the ivory mare, who, after a second thinking shouted up in a sweet voice. "Oh, I got it!"
Rarity grabbed her pencil and paper and copied her friend's design on her own style which was much more appealing, adding the following: "See? The rest of it could be something thin and light so you can see through it. Oh, wait!" she added, giggling and drawing some more details on the masterpiece.
"What's your opinion now?"
"It is lovely, Rarity. You did such a good job with the mask."
"No, no, no it's all thank to you. You gave me that little push I just needed. Thank you so much."
"Gee, it's not much. I'm the assistant after all, glad I could help."
"How much would you offer for it?"
"You must be kidding."
"Not at all. It was your design first place and I'm willing to buy it. Not a single word! I won't take "No" for an answer."
"But-"
"I. Won't."
"Okay.... 1 bit?"
Rarity's face was surprised at first, but she gave in, a bit annoyed but she didn't make a big deal out of it. It was an offer after all, even if almost free. "If you insist." she huffed.
She took her little purse and took out one, exactly one piece of bit coins, then gave it to Silence.
"Now, would you like to see it in real?" she asked.
"Are you planning on sewing it right here and now?" the pegasus asked in confusion.
"Why not? Just sit back and watch, darling, I got this." Rarity replied, taking out the corresponding materials and tools, then beginning to work.
Somehow, Silence felt warmth inside. She admired the generosity of Rarity without a doubt, her inner beauty ignited something inside the mare that was already on fire. No doubt, Silence fell in love with Rarity. She embraced the feeling as she did when Twilight shown up the day they met, she had no intention to refuse something that she already knew about for a long time, it was just too easy to turn her head. Even looking at the unicorn working pleased her heart, so she didn't oppose, just laid down on the sofa and watched the artist doing what she's the best at.
Three knocks on a wooden door broke the quiet of the Everfree Forest meanwhile.
"Zecora?" asked Twilight "I'm glad you're here, I need your help collect-... Fluttershy?!" she said with surprise and confusion. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Um..." Fluttershy couldn't speak, she just looked towards the zebra indirectly, who gave her a gentle nod.
"Fear not Fluttershy, Twilight is your friend, no need to lie." Zecora added after her firm sign of approval.
"What is going on?" Twilight asked, completely baffled.
"I, um, brought back Cycfox to his cave and I found something, and I thought Zecora might now what those are."
"But their beings are an enigma to myself, we think the answer might lie in one of your shelves."
Twilight became curious, "Well I need to see them first."
"Promise you will tell nopony about it." asked Fluttershy.
"Nopony will ever know." promised Twilight.
"Nopony." replied Fluttershy. Her attitude scared Twilight a little, it seemed the matter is extremely serious.
"Nopony." the unicorn responded.
Fluttershy took the lead, towards the cavern where the creature was still asleep. Twilight provided the source of light with her magic as they proceeded towards the location.
"Careful, he is asleep." Fluttershy warned her friends as they sneaked beside Cycfox. The slippery stones were not a problem this time, as they were all extremely careful down there. With time, they made it there, and while the sight crept out Fluttershy, it just raised the curiosity even more in Zecora and Twilight.
Five small, capsule looking device was scattered though the rocky floors, with metallic sides everywhere except the top, what was covered with glass. If that wasn't the only thing, but more interesting was what were inside them. They slowly approached one and took a look inside.
"S-so?" asked Fluttershy in fear.
"I... I have no idea." replied Twilight.
The capsules were filled with a creature never seen by pony eyes before. It had a pale, slightly yellowish skin with a short brown mane, its eyes were extremely little compared to how tall it was. Heading down her neck was most likely their core body part from where six insanely long limbs were sticking out. Two from below, which ended in a strange shape, sort of similar of a hoof, two from the sides of the top that revealed five-five little parts at their end and two black one from behind, folded together. They were almost entirely covered by a variety some sort of textile.
"They're so nasty." said Fluttershy looking inside another one, similar to the previous one but much longer, yellow mane and different decorations.
"Yeah, not the prettiest things I've seen in my life." Twilight agreed.
"Guys..." she sighed "Call me insane, but I think these things are sentient."
"Impossible!" replied Zecora.
"Are... are you sure?" asked Fluttershy.
"Look!" waved Twilight towards them, gathering at the first alien they saw. "See that black thing under her mane?"
"Yes?"
"I think it is an eyepatch. And this one big black one seems like a dress." she explained her speculations.
"This, a dress?" asked Fluttershy in confusion.
"I mean, that part seems like a skirt, those must be the socks, and that is an eyepatch, and that down there seems like a slipper." the unicorn said, pointing towards the directions of the parts she was mentioning.
"But why would they dress up like that?" asked Fluttershy letting out a huge gasp afterwards "What if they're... you know, dead, and, um, this is the funeral clothes?"
"That... doesn't make much sense, considering most of them wears different ones. Maybe it's a status symbol, or a tradition, I... don't know."
Fluttershy took another circle around the alien capsules, she just couldn't grasp what she found, and possibly nopony else did.
"Too many pieces are missing from this puzzle, we can't solve it this way, we either settle with this or double." Zecora suggested.
"You're right, we must know if they're hostile or not. Who knows what's going to happen if they wake up one day."
"W-w-wake up?" Fluttershy repeated as she huddled up in dread, but her rump accidentally touched something on the cold steel, making the glass cover open up in a blink of an eye, hitting her in the back. Fluttershy squealed loudly and flew away, where Twilight did quite the opposite.
"Great job, Fluttershy. You can get off the wall now." said Twilight.
"No... thanks." the pegasus replied.
In the capsule lied yet another one, same pale coat, but pink, curly mane. She also wore a long black dress, though relatively slimmer than the one before. Zecora and Twilight looked inside.
"Soooo...."
"No way I touch them." Zecora refused.
"Well, me neither." turned away Twilight. "Fluttershy-
"No!"
"Gah, okay." gave in the unicorn, slowly reaching towards the alien. She let out a small 'uggh' in disgust while placing one of her hooves under the creatures eye, while the other one on the other side. "Okay, three, two..... one...." her muscles strained as she opened up the alien's left eye. It's eyeball was similar to the ponies' eyes, on white base the iris and the black pupil. Though the iris seemed strange with the black circle in it and as the searing, shining color on it's lower side slowly faded to completely black at the top, but other than those it seemed pretty normal. Twilight waved her head left to the right with her magic light focused on her pupils to see any reaction, but nothing. She sighed in relief and took a small note "At least they eyes are pretty."
"So they aren't alive?" asked Fluttershy in a hi-pitched voice.
"Judging by the lack of reactions, it seems they really did pass away." said Twilight, shutting down the capsule. "Okay girls, what we saw here is taboo, not a word about that anywhere. We have seen nothing, okay?" she said in a bossy voice. The others nodded in agreement.
"Fine, let's get out from here." the unicorn suggested. The others didn't wait, they left the cave as soon as possible, with Fluttershy in the first place of course, who also mentioned on the way home a few seconds later something.
"Twilight, I'm scared."
"Me too, Fluttershy, me too." she stopped, hugging her friend in front of the entrance of the forest. The two friends bid farewell and decided to return home, not speaking about the past event ever again... hopefully.
As the Sun went down, with her daily job finally being finished, the Moon was slowly waking up from her slumber to take her place. Froud Valley was quiet, there were little to no fauna in the cold, rocky environment, only naked, dry trees of black filled with huge holes, as they'd have been burnt then vandalized. Next to a giant lake, castle was emerging from the unfriendly environment on a top of a cliff, its dark bricks forming a repetitive layer, narrow windows that would let only a small portion of the sunshine in. Sticky, green goo piled up at the foot of some walls.
In a sudden, rambling of unnerved creatures broke the usual calm, until a two-toned voice shouted up "Quiet! They're here..." it said, maniacally laughing afterwards.
"Are you sure this is the place." MERCY asked Silence as they flew towards the building.
"Look, I have no idea. Thee map said 'Dream Valley', and that was the only place ending with 'valley' on the map. But judging by all that disgusting green stuff, I'd say yes." Silence replied, as she landed around thirty meters in front of the door. They decided to approach the gate by hooves, as they were secured by two charcoal colored minions: changeling guards. However as they got closer and closer, the creatures looked at each other and didn't block the way.
"The queen is in her throneroom, just straight forward." said one of them.
"Thanks." replied Silence as she and her advisor continued her way inside.
The hall had pillars hogging from it's walls, torches were placed on them to give some light, though it was not much. No other decorations were seen anywhere, with the exceptions of the cracks, the spiderwebs, and the gigantic double-door that lead to the throne room, that was filled with changelings. They almost all looked the same, yet still it was possible to differentiate the female ones from the males due to their long fins. The room followed the same pattern as the previous one, with the exception of the throne itself, that was a beautiful, green lotus, with holes on the side of its leaves in the very middle of a pond. The gigantic flower was surrounded by many smaller ones, and the water was provided by a smaller waterfall from above. It looked like a natural altar in this cold, artificial castle.
And in the very middle of it was reclining she, a significantly taller creature, with her insectoid wings being much larger and elegant that any others', her fins being switched by a mane of cerulean and naturally, holes filling her legs, mane and tail.
Silence's cheeks turned searing hot red by the pure sight of her, which she seemed to take notice of as her mouth suddenly formed into a wicked grin. The other changelings in the room became noisy once again, as they looked towards each other rambling about something in private whispers.
"Quiet!!" she screamed again, turning after the two guests right afterwards... especially towards Silence "Aah, welcome, welcome. I'm glad you came, we rarely have guests around here." she said, with the unnerving smirk still on her face. She began flapping her wings and gently landing in front of them. "I'm Chrysalis, queen of the Changeling Kingdom."
"Silence, clan leader of the M.A.R.E." Silence replied, keeping herself together, despite she had trouble focusing because of the sight of the changeling, and the inconvenient feel in her chest, as something would crawl inside. MERCY however remained unnoticed, which she didn't really take well, giving a little hint to the pegasus in a form of a whisper "Don't fly away, now."
It sort of worked, as the grey mare managed to get back to reality and add "Oh, this is MERCY, she's the specialist in the clan." MERCY also shook hooves with the queen, though they both could care less. Chrysalis was more interested in Silence, and because of that, MERCY had a really bad feeling.
"Come, let's get inside." Chrysalis said, showing the way towards the door, with stairs behind it leading up to the tower, straight into the room of the queen. It looked the same as everything else, except it had windows and a ragged dark grey and green banner as decorations. A huge bed, several chests of drawers, chairs and a desk was all the furniture inside. The queen made herself comfortable in her bed.
"I don't like where this is going." noted MERCY.
"I assume you have some questions. I'm all ears." Chrysalis said.
"Well, yes." agreed Silence "First of all-"
"First of all what do you want?!" cut in madly MERCY.
"In the middle of it, hm? We changelings feed on love to survive. We came on Equestria since there are more love here than everywhere else. But we need friends as well, not just foes." she explained.
MERCY turned to her leader whispering the following "Wow, does she really want to fool us with that?"
"Wait, we can make a good deal out of this." she whispered back.
"We also needed an alliance, continue." told Silence.
"It's a simple trade, dear, nothing else." chuckled the changeling.
"So you need my love to feed on, I get this part, but what would you give in return." asked Silence
"Something you also need as much as we do." replied Chrysalis, graving her fangs into her arm, pulling out a second later, letting the blood flow down her arm. "Food for food." she added.
The two mare was shocked, they instantly looked at each other.
"She knows-"
"-too much, I know."
"Get into it. Free blood is only good for us." MERCY suggested.
"Wait, wait, we don't even know if her blood is edible."
"Who cares? If not, it'll come in handy for the Cluster."
"That's true, we could save big time and bounty without hunting."
They made the final decision and turned back to their partner. "Love for blood, that's a fair offer." confirmed Silence with a confident tone. "But we need to see if your blood is edible for us first." she added.
Chrysalis' face suddenly filled up with wicked happiness. "Why not? Be our guest and stay tonight." suggested Chrysalis.
MERCY became worried, but Silence firmly nodded towards her. "Okay. I'm in." she said.
"So is that a deal?" requested the queen.
"Deal." answered Silence with as a final word before turning back to her advisor. "MERCY, report back and tell the clan that we're in coalition with the Changeling Kingdom."
MERCY nodded, but before flying out the window she turned back once more "Are you sure you want to stay?"
"Trust me, there will be no problem." smiled back the leader. MERCY flew away through the window, soaring through the night with the report.
Chrysalis began to giggle behind her mouth, but as the strange looking mechanic went farther and farther she began to laugh out louder and louder, like a maniac, a crazy evil-doer. In a sudden, a horde of changelings roamed in the door, another dozen flew in the window, filling up the room entirely.
"FEEEAAAST!" screamed the queen, as in a sudden the changelings began to move towards the pegasus. The queen's body suddenly became engulfed in a green layer, slowly advancing upwards in her body, changing it entirely. The charcoal became purple, her tail turned dark blue and as the transformation finished, Silence's instincts caught on fire, seeing her beloved Twilight standing in front of her, giving her a look she have only seen in her wild dreams.
"Do you like what you see?" Twilight asked, as her eyes suddenly faded from purple to green, then black.
"How did you-" attempted to ask Silence, but were silenced by the hoof of the succubus, who kept giggling gently.
"Oh, you'd not believe how many things I know." she said, leaning towards the gray mare as she touched her left hoof, gently taking it and sticking the tip of her hoof into a hole, to the huge shock of the pegasus. But as soon as Silence looked to see what she was doing, the disguised changeling took her hoof from in front of her mouth and replaced it with something much sweeter: her hot lips.
The changelings in the back also began to change. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Trixie, Octavia, they all stood around her and they wanted her there and now.
Silence couldn't move anymore, her body paralyzed itself as the crawling feeling became stronger and stronger, as if hundreds of leeches were crawling inside, sucking on her heart. Like a ragdoll she was thrown onto the bed, where the love-sucking beasts surrounded her to finish what they started.
The Sector II: Episode XIX
First phase
It was the middle of the night still, when Silence decided to take her leave from the castle. She felt tired, used and thrown away.
"Leaving already?" asked a two-toned voice from behind. Chrysalis certainly didn't like the fact that her new primary food source is going, but she knew right that like a good lover, if you let it go, it'll come back.
"I have to, sorry." replied Silence. What a night, even though she felt horribly inside, even though the fake Twilight was nothing like the real one, it felt somewhat good as well.
"It's alright, we both have other things to do." replied the queen. "By the way, didn't you mention something about our blood before?"
This made the pegasus think for a little before she came to realization "Oh, yeah." strangely, she didn't try the blood of the changelings all night, despite it would be critical for them to be edible. It seemed that Chrysalis did know about it, though as she swept her mane away letting her charcoal neck open for targeting. Silence saw the sign and didn't hesitate, she leaped up to her and with an experienced, quick move she struck into her neck with her fangs. Chrysalis hissed a little as the sharp teeth drew her blood, that tasted entirely different that what Silence was used to, different, yet it had that wicked, strange, delicious taste. Quiet seconds followed the feeding, wondering if something will happen, but nothing.
"It seems good." she noted. The queen's eyes glinted, everything went as she planned.
"Well, this is wonderful, but we haven't prepared any tonight." she said, letting out a small giggle as her horn became to glow. "No need to worry, I know how I can make up for that." she added as two changelings, one with small and one with a longer fin appear at the door.
"You two! You're now ordered to her." she said in a firm, cold voice to her minions, turning to Silence afterwards. "They all yours."
"Thank you, I'm humbled. Hopefully we'll meet again soon." Silence bowed, as she and the two changelings left the complex through the window.
Chrysalis laughed "Oh, I'm sure about that."
As the three fliers dashed through the black night Silence brought up her control panel once again to tell important information to her clanmate: MERCY.
"Meet me at the Forest Castle, I have some nuts for you."
It took a few seconds till the reply arrived.
"You're the BEST, S!"
Silence smiled seeing the message, it was certainly better than some food. Though her body was tired, the adrenaline boosted her for long enough to soar to the land, towards the ruined castle in the Everfree forest, in which MERCY was waiting for her.
"Do you have everything ready?" the pegasus asked as she and the two minions landed in front of her.
"Do I seem like to take this lightly?" replied MERCY with a confident tone, as she didn't fancy her friend not taking her seriously. Silence just nodded and picked up the scapel from an old table made out of rock, covered in a yellow textile to protect it from the dust piled up for hundreds of years on it.
"Leader, who is this girl, friend or foe?" asked the male changeling in his double-toned voice as he'd not trust the strange looking girl.
"You don't need to know." turned her head back the pegasus, with the blackness of the holes in her faces revealing as she, with a simple move launched the tool right towards the charcoal creature, ending it up in his chest.
The changeling slowly looked down to check his chest, but as soon as he realized what just happened the blade slowly began to slide out from his body. The blood began to flood from his mouth and the would straight on his hooves then all over the floor.
"Nothing personal, pal, just mere research." the voice of his mistress was heard in his ears before he slowly collapsed on the floor, his vision fading away and blacking out. He died.
Silence handed the tool back to MERCY. "You know the rest." she said.
"Wait, what about the other one, she looked towards the other, female changeling who were shaking in fear. The blood of her comrade was making contact with her right front hoof already, but she just stood there waiting for the orders like a good minion.
"I don't know... would be a shame if she'd run back and tell the queen about it, right?" asked Silence, not waiting for the obvious answer.
"Hey you!" she shouted "What part of you make you change your appearance?" she asked.
"I-It's... it's the shapeshifting nodule, t-t-the brain gives a sign to the nodule and the description, then..." paused the creature to take a deep breath "...then the nodule signals to the horn for execution." she stuttered, making the two mechanical equines look at each other.
"Hah, I knew it's not the heart. It's the brain." explained Silence knocking her right hoof to her skull. "Relieved now? Good. See? I knew this creatures will be more useful than resources."
She turned back to the changeling "Stay here and help my partner out, m'kay?" she asked nicely.
"I don't think it is a good idea, what if she runs away or something." MERCY questioned doubtfully.
"If she didn't run until now, I don't think she'll run from now on. Or if she does, stab her down, the more resource the better." Silence replied, slowly leaning to the changeling girl. Her holes were still shown, deep, black and all empty "But that won't happen, right? You're a nice girl, aren't you?"
The creature smiled back nervously, nodding like a crazy. Silence then flew back to her cot, leaving the two mares doing her work.
The gradient of the night slowly began to appear from the east, as the dark blue night slowly faded towards its lighter counterpart when Silence arrived back at home. She could sleep for a few hours, but her system interfered. Running to the restroom to give out her used up blood once again did she notice how late she actually is. The sun was way up ahead in the sky, and she had a job she can't be late from. In a hurry she washed her mouth and teeth to get rid of the smell of blood before soaring out the door to Rarity's boutique.
Two ponies were waiting outside the shop, Rarity and Pinkie (mostly Pinkie) chatting about something that wasn't clear until the pegasus descended from the sky. Rary wore and elegant scarf around her neck, protecting herself from the chilly weather that turned more and more cold day by day. Pinkie however 'wore' balloons instead, tied to her belly.
"Ah, there she is." was the first clear sentence from the unicorn's mouth.
"Hey girls, good morning."
"Good morning, Silence. I'm glad you're so punctual." complimented Rarity. "I have a special task for you today. Pinkie Pie needs some help with baking and decorating for another birthday party of one of her friends."
"And there are lots and lots of things to do. Let's GO!" she screamed bouncing in the air way higher than an average pony would do, even reaching to the housetops because of the balloons making her lighter. Silence, with a strange, disturbed look followed her towards to Sugarcube Corner.
"Helping Pinkie, huh? I hardly-"
"Rainbow Dash!" shouted Rarity at the blue pegasus who instantly jumped out from the bush right next to the unicorn in fear. "Are you spying on Silence?" she asked straightforwardly. Her voice was uncomfortable and piercing for the pegasus.
"I'm not...'spying' on her, come on, why would I do that on Silence out of all ponies?" she asked in a strange, broken tone. Of course, it took more to fool Rarity.
"Go home Rainbow. Not trusting somepony is one thing. Looking for bad things in her for the sake of looking for evidence is downright cruel." explained the seamstress, making the pegasus huff once then turn back and fly away.
"By the way, Pinkie, whose birthday party will this be that we're going to prepare to?"
"Well, Lyra's." replied the pink pony, shocking Silence. She knew her, that passionate mint-green mare from a while ago.
The Sector II: Episode XXX
The party of the year.
Silence still had a hard time figuring out what the close future with Pinkie is going to bring. Being a completely random hyperactive party pony, she wasn't that much of something Silence is keen on. Though the pegasus didn't judge the rest of the day dead already, moreover she looked forward what crazy things might happen when Pinkie is around. The Sugarcube Corner was open, ready to welcome the hungry mouths.
"Hello Mrs. Cake!" Pinkie greeted the shop's owner, who responded with a similar manner. Silence also said a quick "Hello!" before Pinkie walked upstairs. The place surely lived up to its name, all kinds of cupcakes were standing on dishes on the side of the counter, with even sweeter looking ones under its glass. Even the walls were filled with candy-shaped ornaments, and on the top of that, the pillars were looking like candy-canes. Though, the actual candy canes and lollipops replacing the flowers in vases was something she found as an overkill.
"May I help you?" asked Mrs. Cake from the wandering gray mare, who was sort of lost in the sight of the shop.
"No, thank you. I came to help Pinkie." she replied.
"Ah, Lyra's party, I see now. Well, have fun together, I'm sure it won't be hard." the mare chuckled as she went to the kitchen.
"Here they are!" said Pinkie, coming back with a large pink tablecloth she dropped on the round-shaped table on the side of the room. She then walked over to the other table placing a yellow variant of the cloth.
"Hey Silence, could you get my party cannon for me while I order this up? It must be upstairs." she asked her friend while flattening the wrinkles on the table. Silence nodded and walked up the stairs, thought the only door open. Yes, it was Pinkie's room as the device was seen in the corner, facing towards the walls as a bad foal in the middle of his punishment. She grabbed the end of it, turned around and pushed it out from the room, though the stairs seem to cause her trouble.
"Here, let me help." said Pinkie who was waiting for her as she raised her hooves to aid Silence, who slowly pushed the pink cannon down step by step. Afterwards, Pinkie brought some confetti and streamers and to fill her precious party device up with, and with a careful aim and a press of a button she began to shot them in all direction she thought there are not enough decorations, rinse and repeat she kept loading and shooting until she was pleased with the results.
"Now comes my favorite part." she jumped in excitement, running upstairs. Silence followed her this time, back into her room again, where the pink little pony took a pack of balloons out from her self, opening it up and pouring it's containment on the floor.
"Well a party is not a party with balloons I guess." noted Silence, grabbing a small green piece of latex and beginning to blow it up.
"That's right, and we want the party of parties now, so need twice as much." Pinkie agreed, letting the blue balloon she blew go wild and fly all over the place, ending up in slapping Silence in the face and sticking there. Pinkie couldn't hold back her laughter, only for the time of a little "Oops.". Somehow Silence also found it a bit hilarious, and the pink pony's laughter lit up a small mischievous and playful feeling inside her.
"Oh, you're calling for it, eh?" she said, launching her piece as well, that hit Pinkie in her exposed tummy, as her hooves covered her face by natural reactions.
"Uuh, it is on now." she replied, taking up another balloon from the floor along with Silence. They blew it up larger and larger, her eyes viciously battling with each other as their tongue made a large, sticky layer of drool at the end. With an unexpected and sudden move, Silence charged towards the enemy, ruthlessly firing her light blue, inflatable weapon that made hilarious noises while spitting the liquid where it was pointed at. Pinkie with a high-pitched "No!" fell to her back as she turned away to minimize the amount of injuries while also wildly shooting with her latex gun. As they emptied their clips Silence backed away to reload, but little she saw about Pinkie still having a few more air in hers, enough to launch the weapon towards her. It missed however, but she didn't mind, there was plenty of where it came from after all. However as soon as both mares began to reload the ammunition they realized: It's impossible to blow a balloon while laughing.
Being all tired, with their cheeks rosy red and somewhat aching they expanded on the floor in heavy laughter waiting for it to wear off.
"Ah, Celestia, this was good." Pinkie sighed. A few minutes of lying later they got back on their hooves and gave the balloons another try, blowing them nicely up and tieing them to as much places as possible.
"By the way, now that I think about it, and we're together, you could really tell me what that Pinkie Promise thing is." Silence told, making the pink pony let out a huge gasp.
"You don't know the Pinkie Promise?! Impossible. Don't you dare lie to me Miss Liar Lyington." she shouted, not believing the suspicious statement.
"I really don't know. I just heard ponies mentioning it." Silence explained.
Pinkie's eyes filled with doubt as she scorches through the pegasus' soul, but with a sudden, playful smile she replied "Okie, dokie, then let me teach you."
She sat down and continued "A Pinkie Promise is the ultra, super-secret promise only my friends know, so watch closely." she said, and with her signature moves she began her to sing her little song "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Now it's your turn, show me a practice promise." she pointed towards the pegasus.
Even though it felt strange and somewhat embarrassing to her, it was Pinkie Pie so Silence didn't mind, she repeated the movements and the lyrics making the little pony's heart shine with a cute smile and claps.
"Well, the decoration is done. All we need is the cake. Hope you're ready for baking some baking bads." asked Pinkie with a kinky tone and smile.
"Okie dokie, first of all we'll need a cup of flour." said Pinkie. Silence nodded and handed the flour she already prepared, along with other ingredients. As they continued their work together a familiar voice sounded from outside the kitchen.
"Is Pinkie here?"
"No, I'm here! Come in!" she shouted, making the pegasus roll her eyes. It was Spike. "Hi Spike!"
"Hey Pinkie, Silence. What are you up to?" the dragon asked.
"Uh it's the super-special birthday cake for Lyra we're up to."
"Yeah, we just call it "Baking Bad". added Silence. Spike was a bit of shocked hearing that.
"I see, well, have fun baking." he replied, rushing out afterwards. Silence was pretty confused, but Pinkie didn't mind it at all, just continued her work with a wide smile.
"Baking Bad?!" gasped Rainbow Dash outside hearing the shocking news "I KNEW she's up to something, but poisoning the cake? You know what this means Spike?" she shook the dragon wildly at his shoulders.
"Lyra's in danger?"
"Everypony's in danger! If she can poison the cake she can poison everything! The cookies, the punch, the cupcakes, everything!" the pegasus explained.
"So, what now?" asked Spike in panic.
"There is only one thing we can- Watch out!" she shouted her whispers, as they grey unicorn suddenly appeared at the door next to them. Rainbow grabbed Spike and jumped into the bush.
"Bye Pinkie, see you afternoon." Silence said as the door of the house opened.
"Thanks for your help, also please tell Twilight it may take a while till I find her book." Pinkie shouted as she waved towards her assistant.
"Will do." Silence smiled back as she went on her way to see her beloved.
"Tell Twilight, huh? I doubt that." Whispered Rainbow menacingly.
"Hey Dashie!" screamed Pinkie "What are you doing in Rose's rosebush?"
As time passed on, and the sun started to take its way downwards, the little ponies in the Sugarcube Corner got more and more excited. A mint coated one walked the way there, with a little grumpy face, but as soon as she entered the hut her face cheered up... right after her near-death experience in heart attack caused by a horde of voices shouting "Happy Birthday!".
Lyra was in awe, as a friend of hers stepped forwards, Bon Bon. "I'm sorry for that lame excuse with the cupcakes, I just needed to improvise." she apologized.
"It's okay, though I should have known something is fishy."
"You like it? We made sure your nineteenth birthday will be nineteen times as much fun as the last eighteen." squealed Pinkie from the side of Silence.
"Thank you Pinkie, it means so much to me." replied with a moved tone.
"Let's get this party started! So what do you say? Should we play "Pin the tail on the pony"" she screamed, turning on the music provided by a little pink radio on the table. Lyra nodded with a chuckle.
Silence rather stood back and observed instead of participating, she wasn't much of a party-pony. Something touched her back however, gently poking it, seeking for attention. Twilight.
"Thank you for throwing this party for her, it's so kind of you." she said with an ever so gentle voice.
"Most credit goes to Pinkie, I was just assisting here and there."
"I'm not really into these huge parties either." she chuckled as she noticed the reclusive behavior of her friend. "Would you... like to sneak out to the nearby restaurant, just you and me?" she asked with a slight blush on her cheeks as she turned her head in shyness.
Silence got hit hearing the offer, Twilight asking her out like that? It seemed so... strange from her. But the blush and her mind convinced Silence that they could not expect her falling for just the same thing twice. It was most likely her one and only opportunity, missing it was not an option. With a nod of confirmation, the purple little pony lead the way out the backdoor and as prisoners who escaped from the jail sneaked away from the seeing eyes.
The Lucky Clover was empty, seemed like many were at Pinkie's party. Twilight lead her friend inside and took a table.
"Hello, Twilight, long time no see." a gray and black stallion greeted her.
"Oh, hi Lucky. I thought you also went to the party." she explained.
"Ah, I can't, who'd keep the business running then, besides I have a lucky day." he said, pointing his sight to a tall pony in the corner: Princess Cadence. "Would you like something to eat or drink?" sounded the question.
"Just some apple juice."
"Her highness?"
"A glass of apple juice, dear, now that you're at it."
As Lucky went for the drinks Twilight turned to Silence, with passion burning in her eyes she tried to fade away.
"Maybe it's not the best place to tell, but nowadays, I... kept thinking." she explained.
"Your apple juice, girls and... your highness." Lucky arrived, serving the drinks, with a slight, modest giggle of embarrassment when he arrived at the princess' table, leaving them alone afterwards.
"What you were thinking about?" Silence asked.
"You... actually. I know it may sound disturbing but I couldn't get you out of my mind." Twilight replied. "You're like a good book, filled with secrets and mysteries, waiting for them to be explored, or at least that's what I think is the situation. It's so... charming and magnetic, I simply can't put it down." she continued. Silence felt as she received a heart attack, so sudden, like an ambush of confessions, she became confused more than ever. On the top of that, as she tried to reply with no success other than a few "uuh"-s a message popped up in front of her, it was urgent, top priority.
"I...uh, I need a moment, will be back in a second." she said, and as lightning rushed out from the complex.
Twilight saddened a little, turned to Cadence asking "Was I that bad?".
The princess however just chuckled "Give her some time, it must have been a shocker."
"Yeah, right. At least she makes our job easier, quick give me the vial."
Cadence took a little glass of a dark green liquid from under her wings and threw it towards the unicorn.
"What's wrong? I'm in the middle of a date." Silence asked replying to the message she received from MERCY.
"Who cares?! This is fucking important." MERCY shouted back, but before Silence could say anything she continued. "Remember that node the changelings had, well, I extracted it, and guess what, I found a way to use it as a second-hand magic wand."
"You mean we can transform anything with it?"
"Yes, but there is a twist: shit needs fuckton of black mana and gonna die off with the process, or if we wait for long."
"Chance to get the Core back, how much time do we have?"
"I can keep this thing working for a day or so. Hope there are some fancy tricks in the book of yours because no way I'll miss this chance. I'm out."
The communication shut down. MERCY really had her nerves on fire this time, though she couldn't be blamed. There were a light showing at the end of this tunnel filled with hiding and suffering, yet the chance to failure was so high. But Silence just stared there like a statue, as she realized her fatal mistake.
Her mind screamed in panic "(Oh, God the book! I forgot the damned book under the bed! What if Twilight- No!)" with shaking her head she tried to set her mind free from the frightening thoughts, it was not time for panic right now, but it was the time for sweet romance. With a few deep breaths she calmed herself into the belief Twilight could not possibly check under the bed's sponge for no reason, then she headed back inside.
Silence slowly walked back inside the restaurant, with her eyes like lasers burning through everything.
"I'm sorry, dear, it just came so suddenly." she confessed, sitting back on her beanie. "You know, I always wondered if you'll ever... return what I feel towards you."
"I do... it's just so difficult to grasp the fact that we're both mares. Then I realized that it doesn't matter, because I love you emotionally, not physically." the purple one explained as she placed her left on the table, making Silence reach out for her.
"We share so much in common..." Silence replied.
"So much..."
They just gazed into each other's sparkling eyes for long, long moments, as the red ribbon tied their hooves to each other gently stroking them back and forth. Twilight cover her glass in a purple glow as it hovered up, and without a word, she leaned it towards Silence's. With a bit of difficulty but Silence also took the glass with her mouth and with a confident move they clung it, drinking them up afterwards. After they put it down back on the table Silence felt a need to ask something.
"Were you thinking of saying what I was thinking of?"
After a blink of quite both voices spoke up loud the magical sentence: "For our relationship!" ending up in a small burst of laughter.
"Nothing can brake this one." Twilight explained, gently shaking her head.
"No rain, no snow, no fire or poison." Silence replied. Twilight's eyes notably shrunk after the last word, but she kept her sweet expression as much as she possibly could.
"Shall we get back then, I think the others might have noticed the lack of our presence." the pegasus suggested.
"Good idea." Twilight nodded, waving to the bored Lucky for the check, who brought it immediately.
"Thanks Lucky, one more thing." she said waving her hooves signing there is some secret she wants to tell. "No hard feelings?"
"Um, no why?" he replied, but he couldn't even finish his question properly as the unicorn zapped her mind with a magical channel, rewriting the stallions recent memories quietly. All three mares decided to get back to the party as soon as they could, but what they found in the Sugarcube Corner was more then surprising.
"There she is!" shouted Rainbow as soon as the gray pegasus set foot in the building. The building which was a complete mess inside. Pieces of icing all over the place, covered by confetti and streamers, as well as a herd of angry, disturbed or confused ponies.
"We know about your little plan." the mare continued.
"What are you talking about?" Silence asked in confusion.
"Don't pretend the innocent."
"Yeah, we know you poisoned the cake so everypony will fall in love with you, so you can take over Ponyville." added Spike.
"The hell are you talking about?!" shouted Silence in fury.
"Stubborn, huh? "Baking bads", reminds something?" the rainbow pony asked menacingly, only to get answered by Pinkie Pie.
"Uh, it does." she screamed as she ran with an orange book in between her hooves, with the black title "Baking Bread" where the "Ba" and "Br" was conveniently placed in two black squares, with the orange filling the letters.
"See? It is my favorite book, I lost it back when I was a little filly. I always played with the words in it, its so much fun." she giggled.
"Yeah, but how do counter this?" asked Spike, showing a book from the library, exactly the one and exactly on the page with the love poison. "You were the last one who used the library today, since Twilight was away." However, Twilight stepped up and took it out from his claws using her magic, along with pulling the large scale on his head wickedly.
"Give me that! Spike that has nothing to do with Silence, I needed that to research how the potion's ingredients work." she shouted furiously, pulling the screaming dragon out from the room "We have some serious talking to do." The townsfolk started to follow their lead, as the party was clearly over.
Rainbow was sort of confused "Wait, so does that mean-"
"The whole thing was just your messed up imagination, good job Rainbow." Applejack said sarcastically as she left from the building as well.
"I strongly advise holding your horses for a while, I understand you don't sympathize with Silence but such barbarism was really unnecessary. Hmpf." Rarity told as she slapped Dash with her tail the way out.
"Nineteen years old Dashie, you know how many times do you turn that old? Once. And now she got to wait a year so she can have a birthday again, and even that won't be the same." Pinkie explained, holding Dash's face against hers, until she saw Lyra leaving in the corner of her eyes. Quickly she rushed out to follow her and even from the streets her apology was heard. Silence was the last to leave before her, her eyes filled with hate and disgust as she looked over the blue mare. Dash stared at the ground for a few seconds, then she punched the ground with all her might and with a body shivering from wrath and eyes tearing up from anger she left the mess as well. The Sugarcube Corner became as silent as a graveyard. It was clearly one of the worst parties it served so far.
As the cold midnight breeze blew through the air an alicorn princess collapsed on the back of her husband "Shining...".
"Signals?" he asked. The Royal Guards had no rest even at midnight. They settled in two houses in the town, as both was for sale and the situation was critical, the owners were asked by the princesses if they can home them there. While one half of them patrolled the streets at noon, the other one did so at night, so there was no need to sleep on the floor. Shining, however had the leading role in case of unnatural events happening. And this was one of them.
The captain alarmed all nearby units and as they arrived to the maim street she asked his beloved "Can you feel where does it come from?"
"I guess... that way." she said, pointing towards a gigantic tree the roads were leading up to.
Armor needed confirmation, such thing was beyond his imagination. His little sister would be behind all this? The black magic? The eruptions? The suffer of the princesses? "Are you sure?" he asked, but all he received was a nod. There was no other choice, and despite Shining was shocked, deep inside he had this fear, as all odds, the talent to use black magic, the location of the eruptions, the curious nature behind it, somehow all of these pointed towards her. What had to be done had to be done, however. With a couple of armed soldiers he intercepted the library.
"Twilight Sparkle!" echoed through the library as the officers kicked in the door.
"The basement guys, Cadence said it's coming from there." "(Twily... don't do this to me.)"
"Dragon!" shouted a guard noticing Spike running downstairs, but the captain signed to focus on the primary target, who- or whatever it was. He kicked in the door of the basement, only to see his nightmare coming true. The sight and the fact that the last bit of hope has faded away was beyond comprehension. Twilight Sparkle, his very sister, a criminal, and standing right in front of him.
"Twily..." he said, with a saddened to, and a huge sight "You're arrested by the Equestrian Royal Guards for illegal usage of black magic... take her guys." he said, his tone filled with disappointment as he turned back.
Twilight didn't fight back, didn't say a word, just accepted her terrible fate, the fact that her entire life just shattered into pieces in a blink of an eye. The guards put the chains on her hooves and surrounded her, guiding the unicorn out from the room.
"Twilight? Shining what's..."
"She'll be in good hooves now, Spike." replied the stallion quietly.
Outside waited three figures, who Twilight knew very well, with varying emotions around the topic. She walked by her very mentor, Princess Celestia, but their sight were not connected. She was extremely disappointed at her favorite student, so much she refused to even look at her, like a mother whose daughter brought shame on her. Next to her stood Princess Luna, her face trying to withdraw the overflowing mixture of sadness, anger, shock and disappointment. It just made Twilight so uncomfortable she couldn't look in her eyes. Last stood Cadence, with her face full of worry. She leaned to the unicorn and whispered calming words "Don't worry, not all hope is lost."
But Twilight didn't answer, just looked away in embarrassment and with her eyes shut. Tears began to show up in her eyes that quietly, peacefully descended down her cheeks while she was guided onto the small carriage the princesses use. They also hopped on with a flap of their wings and flew away in the night.
They didn't know the actual criminal was watching through the window, with her head hot from frustration.
"(I'm gonna need another plan, and fast.)"
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.
The Sector II: Episode XXXII
Phase Three
Minutes and minutes passed by when in a sudden, the pegasus disguised as Nightmare let go of the gigantic pillar of magical energy accompanied with the awful noise coming with it. Her front legs were completely numb, being unable to hold her anymore. The magic dissolved around her target as some sort of bright orb have been revealed. It was small enough to hold in both hooves without problem but too big to hold in one. The object had a biomechanical surrounding around, as if it'd have been some sort of armor to protect whatever it held inside, so much, the glow of the orb barely had any way out. The others only approached it with tiny steps.
"I-is it...?" Lisa asked. "It looks so different."
"I feel the aura... it's giving me chills. It surely is." Replied Irina.
"No time to wonder around, girls. I know it's on the edge of surrealism, but we can check it's reality later." told Nightmare with a level head "How are the- Ngh!" she staggered back in shock, seeing the condition of the papers on her skin. All green and yellow one was empty, the charms and symbols disappeared, only the two red one on her chest had a huge but faint red sigil in their middle. This was bad, with this much power she'd be unable to rescue Twilight with keeping up the disguise, and the thought unnerved her to no end.
"Hey, I found another one!" shouted Lisa from a distance, holding a sealed, red charm. She placed it on the ground gently to show it is yet to be used.
"Great, wrap in on the Core, the infused mana should be enough for you girls to get some proper hulls." told Nightmare, however the others had different plans.
"You clearly need it more than we do." said Irina with a sly tone in her voice.
"An innocent is about to get punished, God surely would choose this way as well." added Lisa with her eyes closed.
Silence shut her slit eyes as she replied "I'm humbled girls. But my clan- Hey!" the alicorn shouted up as she felt paper pushing against her chest. It was Martina, placing the seal on her despite her leader's decision.
"You lost your lover once during the transplantation, Mel, the least I can do is to prevent you from suffering again." she explained softly as she smoothed the charm on the surface.
"Martina..."
"Seal out!" the girl shouted "Go save your love!"
Silence nodded with a happy and grateful smile "Thank you girls, you're all so kind."
"Oh, shut up, just save the damsel already." Emily chuckled.
Silence rolled her eyes and with a few, powerful flings of her wings she took off to save her beloved unicorn.
Canterlot, capital of Equestria, the town usually peaceful in its own way, now under the siege of chaos and fear. While the citizens helplessly wondered around town now that the princesses were gone to handle to crisis, they could do nothing, but wait anxiously.
Meanwhile, the hospital were surrounded by Royal Guards not to protect a piece of lavender from the world, but to protect the world from her.
"Don't worry, Twily, as long as we don't get a clear order from the princess, nothing will happen to you." calmed her sister Shining Armor, right next to the door with the open window that could blur the vision of the inside completely once slid in. Inside the room was locked her, Twilight Sparkle, waiting for her punishment completely alone. The sound of the guards gaiting back and forth was felt from almost all direction, however these weren't close as unnerving as the small syringes and saws on the table or hung on the walls. The fear inside her was overwhelming, no windows, only some artificial light to provide some vision for her was the only thing that kept her hope alive. In a sudden, shouts were heard from outside.
"Nightmare Moon! Nightmare Moon!" guards shouted, not only one, but at least four or five. Confusion filled the building as they ran to the windows, to see an almost black creature in sapphire armor soaring through the skies towards the castle.
Two earth ponies walked through the narrow room with beautifully decorated pillars, and between them, even more beautiful stained glasses, and above the room, the gigantic chandelier that served with light when the night arrived. One of them however felt strange.
"Was that thing always up there?" he asked, making the other laugh a little.
"Yeah, it just seems new cause you never look at it."
But as they kept staring and adoring the sight of it the sound of breaking chains shocked them. Not in a blink of an eye later they saw the enormous golden light-holder closing towards them, turning into a dark cloud as they closed their eyes to prepare to the impact. The clock didn't even move but the demon stood just next to them. Nightmare's mane engulfed the one with the grey skin while the white one was hold still with the tail.
"Where's Twilight Sparkle?!" she shouted in such volume the windows began to vibrate around, it even echoed through the whole room. The guards couldn't speak properly, only incomprehensible gibberish left their throat. The alicorn grew impatient, which she shown through her sharp fangs, making the guard held hostage by her tail yell "The hospital, the hospital!".
Nightmare groaned and threw them at the wall, from which they stuck on for second and fall off like ragdolls. With a small fling of her mane and tail she engulfed her body into a small cloud and left through the wall in a blink of an eye. She had no time, as fast as she could she soared over the screaming townsfolk heading towards the only building completely surrounded by hundreds of guards.
She turned back to her alicorn form by the sight of the unicorns lining up and readying themselves for a wall of fire and as her horn charged up she began shooting balls of light blue magic at them. The guards, shocked by the sudden charge scattered to dodge the incoming blasts, as Nightmare reached the ground like a meteor, turning into a blast of dark cloud, shoving away the resistance, retreating back to its owner afterwards, who broke in the door.
"Incoming!" and other shouts were heard everywhere in the two-floor complex, as the alicorn began her rampage through the building. The enforcers of law tried to block her way, but their cause was hopeless as they stood no chance against the fake form of a deity.
Nightmare literally swept through them as she kept tossing them away with her mane and tail. Guards were flying helplessly, hitting the ground or being smacked up the wall. Another tried to get in her way, but the alicorn just turned into her cloud form and flew right through him. Even more guards appeared on the stairs in the corner of her ruby red eye, she quickly turned there and flew through the solid concrete.
The place became an entire chaotic mess behind her as the guards lied all over the ruined corridors, and the ones who weren't had not the faintest idea how to stop the unstoppable. With a small charge of her horn she threw the guards onto the others behind her and rushed forwards, until she heard a voice from her left.
"Shining? What's going on out there?" cried out Twilight.
Nightmare's ear twitched and she turned her head in a blink of an eye towards that direction.
"Don't worry sis, I'll protect you no matter what." her brother replied, as he saw the end coming, the storm he had no chance in stopping. He charged up his own horn and pulled up a pink shield as the demon charged towards him, with her horn engulfed in a dark blue aura piercing through the air, pointed right towards him. The confidence of the colt however didn't change, no matter how fast and how close she were. In the last moment his eyes shut by natural reaction, as Nightmare's horn pierced through the shield like a rapier, and as a bull horned him up, blasting the captain with a force huge enough to make him do a few flips before being smashed to the wall. Cracks were heard as he hit the wall, it was both his bones and the wall behind that cracked. The alicorn kept the pose of a diva she ended up in for a small moment, before a scream pierced her ears from her right.
She looked there swiftly, making her ruby red and emerald green eyes finally meet her lover's beautiful purple ones. Long minutes seem to pass as they stared at each others' gems, wandering completely lost in them, while in reality only a second lasted. In reality Twilight fell back to, as she saw the rims on the alicorn shrinking in a flash of a lighting, before she turned into a dark cloud and charging into the room.
A slight shriek escaped from the throat of Twilight, before the cloud ate her up, and left through the wall behind.
"Don't worry, everything will be fine." the gentle voice of Nightmare said, before the unicorn passed out in the deep, dark space she stuck in. Arriving back in the open Nightmare revealed her original form once again, Twilight lying unconscious on her back. She took a look at the empty papers clinging on her chest, and with some magic she got rid of them.
As the dark blue creature left the mountain where Canterlot was lying she decided to take the remaining distance by gliding. She didn't feel any exhausted, but she knew this form won't last for long and she'll need a place to get Twilight safe and even afterwards getting lost from the heat. She aimed towards the Everfree Forest when a voice shouted her name.
"Not so fast Nightmare Moon!" called her out Rainbow Dash. As Nightmare turned her head upwards the first thing she saw was the blue pegasus doing a divekick towards her direction. With a swing of her horn however, she countered it, sending her back to the direction where she came from. Only afterwards she noticed the new bystanders, coming with a hot-air balloon. They were no other but Twilight's friends, her friends as well.
"Give us back Twilight, or I swear we won't hold back." threatened her Applejack, with a golden necklace hanging from her and her friend's necks.
"...please?" added Fluttershy in a gentle way, possibly the only way she could at that moment.
The disguised foe took a look towards her sleeping beloved and with a silent goodbye and the help of her magic she gently laid her into the basket, to the audible surprise of everyone. The unicorn slowly woke to the fact she is completely surrounded by worried eyes, only Fluttershy turned back after making sure of her friend's state.
"Thank you!" she said, however Nightmare was not there anymore, in fact she disappeared completely from all direction. Though this was something she could care later about, as now she felt the need to join to the others in the celebration of their friends.
"What in the wide world was that?" asked Applejack in total confusion after Twilight got back on her hooves, regarding to Nightmare mere seconds ago.
"It certainly was unexpected, let alone confusing." Rarity stated, as she gave her friend a golden tiara, the Element of Magic.
"I don't know..." Twilight replied with doubt and fear on her face, while the accessory slowly landed on the top of her head.
"Who cares? We got you back, that's what matters." said Dash.
"Let's go home, please." asked Fluttershy quietly, but cheerfully as the happiness was clearly heard in her soft voice.
"Yes... let's." nodded Twilight with a small smile. Something clearly bothered her, but she decided to hide her feelings under a mask of joy.
With her love in safety and her identity Silence sighed in relief that her mission succeeded. Dizzily she leaned against a tree as she ran completely dry on energy to keep up the disguise of Nightmare Moon, resulting it to crack, than shatter into fragments that disintegrated into nothing a second afterwards. Her body felt fragile and extremely weak again, she tried to lean away from the plant and walk, but it only resulted in two steps before she hit the dust once again, with a steam of almost completely black blood gushing out from her mouth. Her vision became bordered by ruthless static, trying to gain territory inwards. Something red signaled from the corner, crying for help as it was almost completely engulfed by the noise. It was a string of numbers.
"(This... again.)" Silence sighed, getting up on her hooves and trying again... and falling a second later. But she didn't give up, she stood up once again, waited till her body finds the perfect balance, and with slow, yet confident steps she began heading towards the exit of the forest not far away from her. She passed by Fluttershy's cottage like a drunkard, but as she attempted to cross the small bridge her body collapsed once again, the static growing bigger and bigger as the noise in her head grew stronger and stronger. She couldn't get up anymore, just lied there like a thrown-out doll as a red text kept flashing in front of her eyes:"Low Energy!", before the complete noise she heard and seen engulfed her senses completely, cutting to black in a sudden moment.
The Sector II: Episode XXXIII
The truth hurts
Strange noise faded in from the black, as the annoying sound returned with. Eventually they both started to fade away as well as the static slowly retreated to the sides of her vision, revealing a white wall she was staring at, a ceiling to be correct.
Just a second later did a small pop-up screen covered her vision, as a strange voice was heard through the messenger.
"Huh? Oh God, finally. Girls! Girls!" she said "God-fucking-damn Mel, you scared the shit out of us."
"E... Emily?" she replied quietly in confusion. "You sound different."
"Irina, and there is a reason for that. Long story short your system couldn't handle the intensive fluctuation of your energy levels and shut itself down for regeneration. Some girl found you and you ended up there. I kept trying to contact you but you passed out for about a week." the now strangely clear-toned girl explained.
Silence took a look around as she slowly got up to do so, the first thing she noticed were the cable, that infused blood inside her. She was in a hospital, a hospital with blue walls dominating while the green curtains served as some extra color. She took a look out the window, and the first thing that caught her attention was the gigantic tower of the town hall, that had confirmed her current location.
"A week? Did I miss much?" she asked, scratching her heavy head.
"Yeeeaah, that. Should I start with the shit news or the not-so-disappointing news?"
No answer.
"Oh, right, you would listen to both anyway. So the average news are that our little heroines resolved a bunch of mess you luckily didn't have to suffer though. The shit news is... uh, how should I say." Irina hesitated.
"Your girlfriend got a bit of, um, "upgrade" that might cause you a tiny bit of a problem with your future plans."
"What do you mean?" the pegasus asked, when knocks interrupted their conversation. Shocked from fear Irina terminated the conversation as the door slightly opened, with an adorable purple face peeking in, Twilight Sparkle. Say the devil's name and she appears. As soon as she saw the awoken gray mare, however, her doubtful and bit sad face turned into surprised, which suddenly became adorned with adorable joy.
"Silence!" she shouted cheerfully as she opened the door completely with a wide, cute smile of a friendly face, her wings jumping to life from excitement.
Silence's smile did a flip as the love in her eyes instantly swapped with shock. She froze solid, her body became completely numb as she watched the lavender not uni- but alicorn gaiting towards her with a foxy expression.
"Yes, I expected this kind of reaction." she told as some of her friends slowly followed her inside, namely Rarity and Fluttershy.
Silence slowly raised her hoof to touch them, as Twilight slowly moved them towards her to aid in their contact. "I can guarantee it's not mere illusion."
Silence looked at the clock "Half past one. I remember, last time seeing you being taken away by Celestia." she added, trying to recall her memories with closed eyes, looking back at the clock once finished. "...half past one."
"It's not a dream either." giggled Twilight. "Though, I admit it is still hard to believe, even for me as well."
"We worried ourselves sick about you, darling." Rarity stated anxiously. "The doctors said your mind couldn't bear the stress and gave up a few weeks ago."
"Was that why you couldn't come to the trial, and the coronation, and the celebration?" asked Fluttershy with a worried voice, receiving a small nod as an answer.
"Silence, I appreciate your thoughts. You know we was a bit mad at first, when we didn't know about the events, but now, we're glad you're alright." Twilight continued, as she placed her hoof slowly on the bed. The pegasus' eyes however still wandered from her eyes towards her now closed wings again, which the purple had no difficulties in noticing.
"Still the wings?" she asked in a sly voice, followed by an adorable chuckle. She opened her left wing once again, letting the gray mare touch its soft feathers gently once again. After some seconds of playing Twilight closed them once again, with a little sentence to finish their visit.
"Get better soon." she told, with her friends nodding in the back.
"Will do." replied the gray mare, as her friends began to take their leave. However from outside, a conversation was heard, as Twilight didn't close the door completely.
"Visiting Silence?"
"Oh, yes, princess."
"I've got great news, but you should better see it for yourselves."
As the door opened, four strangers entered the room, wearing fine, long dress-saddles that covered most of their backs, but was short enough not to touch the ground. One of them was a zebra, with a short black bobcut, wearing a long, black saddle, while another behind her was an orange one with a braided pink-yellow mane and a cute baby blue bow, she wore an orange dress. The pony next to her was light pink, with a darker indigo shaded mane, and a necklace of a grey plus-sign and a white dress. The last one was an olive-coated one with a brown mane, she wore a brown piece to cover her back.
"Hey, Mel, glad you're back." the zebra whispered.
"Irina?" Silence said in shock. It was simply breathtaking that their voice, their movements, their look were all so real. Like a completely average pony.
"We got some mana and made a few cheaper hulls with the Core." the earth pony continued as they formed a half circle around the bed.
"Then it's a victory." Silence replied in relief as she allowed her body to collapse back on the bed. Quiet filled the room for long seconds, like in a funeral.
"Strange, huh? After so many years of war, defeat, and such... it's over, it's peaceful." Lisa said, as she could barely believe the events.
After long seconds of some more calm Silence let a small giggle escape her mouth "Yeah, and now we're disbanding.".
"Yeah, about that..." Martina said, giving a wicked look towards the others, who nodded back, taking off their dresses, revealing a black symbol on their backside. Not any symbol, but the exact same cutie mark as their leader had. Silence's eyes began to water by the touching gesture.
"Thank you for all you gave us, for guiding us in these last years, for showing us the light, for your generous sacrifices, for your kindness, for your honesty, loyalty, and for cheering us up when we were down." they said at once.
Silence opened her arms wide, as she attracted the others around, forming a huge, warm group hug.
"Nice run girls, I'm glad we did it together, we all deserve the retirement."
"Yeah, so what about you?" asked Emily "It must be awful you can't continue this black magic thing..."
Silence nodded gently "How ironic..."
"We still have the internal messenger, so we can keep contact, we thought about throwing a farewell party some time, when you get better." Lisa said.
"Alright, thank you girls." Silence said, staring at the ceiling as the curtains were drawn together, eliminating the light inside.
"Get better soon." Irina said, as they snuck out the slowly opening door, letting the pegasus get some sleep.
However, she just kept gazing into the void, for minutes, when finally rose up once again.
"(I know what I have to do...)" she said, opening the window and leaving the hospital.
"Twilight Sparkle?" asked Celestia in confusion.
"Princess Celestia?" the little alicorn asked back.
"Sister?"
"Cadence?"
A few more baffled questions later did the princesses found themselves standing together in the hall of the castle all carrying a small letter, with mostly the same text of emergency written on it, until the door opened behind, revealing a pegasus with grey coat and a brown mane.
"Silence?" asked Twilight in total confusion, that seemed as it can't be topped by anything.
"Uhm, guards?" ordered Luna in a puzzled tone clearly sounding in her voice.
Two guards rushed in from the sides, who were guarding the doors, however their hoof lost contact with the surface as they were raised from the ground by force so alien the alicorns suddenly felt a chill going down their spine, as their legs weakened, eventually giving up. The pegasus began to change, black spots of holes began to fade on her body as she walked closer and closer, with the guards in a faint black aura circling around her like dolls. Her green eye completely faded into the void, leaving a gigantic black cavity behind with a small sign of light showing from the inside as a pupil of a demon in the black night. She threw the guards away, who landed and slid on the floor, making the suffering of the princesses come to an end.
"I came to surrender." she said silently, as she shut her eyes and bowed down before the ones who just stood up. Everypony was in complete shock, mixed with various emotions lying inside, Celestia, though she kept her expressions at bay was completely baffled on how is this possible, yet she was sort of glad it did not become any worse. Luna's was filled with fear, fear from the unknown standing right in front of them, but she knew it's about to end soon... hopefully. Cadence's face turned all white. What sort of sick, twisted abomination she was looking at was a complete mystery, though inside she knew that this monster was in love with somepony way too much, and that somepony was the most shocked of all, if not frozen solid. Twilight's mind was unable to comprehend the happenings, Silence, out of all ponies? Shock turned into realization, which turned into sadness sourced from the downright betrayal of her very close friend.
Celestia recognized these feelings as she looked at Twilight from the corner of her eye, she knew all too well how does it feels like, yet she remained calm and still to make the newborn alicorn swallow the hard pills life may give. After long seconds of quiet, the pegasus stood up.
"Well... this came unexpected." the white alicorn noted. "In this case, follow us." she said as she slowly nodded at her sister and gaited behind the unidentified creature. They boxed in the pegasus, Celestia and Luna from behind controlling them, while Cadence and Twilight from the front, protecting the way from a possible sudden running act. Cadence however kept her eyes on Twilight more than on the road. She knew it must have been painful that her heart was shattered into tiny practices.
Eventually, they arrived in a strange, circle-based room, white walls decorated by the blue and yellow curtains of the Moon and the Sun. In the middle, a round-shaped table with a transparent orb embedded in the middle. Celestia placed pillows on both sides, while they lead the stranger to the other side of the room. Everypony took their place, like in an arena, Silence all alone on the left, while the princesses on the right.
"This is the Hall of Truth, as the name implies we use it to discover one's secrets." Celestia said in a serious tone as she closed the door. "Place your hooves on the orb!" she ordered, in such intimidating tone one would think again before messing with her, though Silence did so without a word. The other side followed her, with the Celestial sisters, Cadence and Twilight joining for last, charging up their horn, thus the orb as well.
"Who, are, you?" Celestia asked in the same tone as before.
"Silence, prototype unit and the first M.A.R.E." the pegasus replied. The orb turned green, for everyone's surprise, making them look at each other.
"M.A.R.E.? Could you explain?" asked Luna.
"Was everything you told me just a lie?!" cut in Twilight, with her voice indicating she was about to lose it. Silence didn't reply for long seconds, instead just stared at the orb. After a long wait she opened her mouth. "I'm sorry." she whispered.
Twilight released the orb. "That's all I wanted to know." she whispered as she turned around and kicked the doors with her front hooves, desperately trying to hold back her tears, without success.
"Twilight!"
"Cadence!" Celestia interrupted the rushing alicorn,shaking her head gently, but her words were not taken by the other princess.
"I'm sorry, but I have to." she replied, rushing after the other alicorn. Celestia closed the door after them, turning back to the pegasus who sat there still.
"M.A.R.E. stands for Multifunctional Artificial Robotic Equine." the gray one explained, regarding to the question seconds ago.
"How did you acquire black magic?" Celestia asked.
"This... is a long story." Silence sighed...
"Is Twilight here?" Cadence asked the guards, wheezing, tired from the chase.
"She rushed in crying, your highness."
Cadence slowly opened the door, walking in as she saw the little purple one fighting her tears on her bed.
"Twilight..."
"No..." she replied, hiding under the blanket.
"I know it must be hard, but I think she had a good reason." Cadence said softly, as she laid down next to her friend on the bed.
"She lied to me... about everything... I thought of her as a friend, if not more... I can't even decide if she loved me even or was just using me as a tool."
Cadence giggled as she took off the blanket, finding the teary-eyed mare underneath, and the sheets wet from the salty liquid.
"Of course she loves you, otherwise why would she be here?" she said, laying her left hoof on the back of the alicorn, gently petting her mane up and down. Twilight suddenly raised her head, her eyes opening wide as her irises grew big.
"She surrendered because she knew she would have to hurt you." Cadence continued. Twilight kept staring into the void, all the memories flashing back like small images in her mind, images of them watching the sunset, of the Running of the Leaves, of the chess games they played over and over again, when a spark glinted in her eyes. Cadence smiled, she knew that she succeeded in the very thing she is good at. Twilight rubbed her red, cried-out eyes to get rid of the salt that already harmed the skin underneath, making it rosy red.
"Let's go back." she said, her voice filled with relief, insight and a little bit of joy.
They reentered the door of the Hall of the Truth, where Silence was still kept, only to realize that it was all over.
"Feel better, Twilight Sparkle?" asked Luna with a little worry showing on her face.
"Yes... thank you." Twilight replied with a bit of a nod.
Even though they missed almost everything, Celestia however, summed up the results pretty quickly.
"We couldn't get much information, as most terms she used was foreign, but from what it seems, Silence is not from Equestria, in fact not from this very dimension. Can you confirm that?" she turned towards the gray one, who gave a firm nod as a response.
Twilight tried not to get carried away by the fact that interdimensional travels are real and possible, instead kept her mouth shut to let the alicorn continue.
"From what I understood, she and her allies ended up here in order to escape from a foe, and decided to seek a new life, is that true?" she asked for confirmation once again, receiving another nod.
"But... why?" asked Twilight in total confusion. "All this mess, only for a fresh start?"
"You'll think more than twice who and what you trust after time..." Silence replied in a deep tone, turning away with shut eyes.
"According to Silence, her.... 'clan', as she calls went through some unfortunate turn of events, making them lose trust in anything."
"So they had to sneak in unnoticed.... I see." Twilight finished, staring into the void for a few moments until she looked back to her friend "You were the creatures in the cave, the ones in the glass pods." she explained, pointing towards her.
Silence nodded with a little smirk "Can you guess which one was mine?"
Twilight gazed at her face for a long second, until a huge gasp tried to escape her throat, which she kept inside with her hooves, due to a small flashback of a pale, brown-maned creature in a black dress. She didn't knew what was frightening for a second, the fact that her friend was an abomination from another dimension, or that she was that exact one she actually had to touch. Though for the second thought, she just wanted to smack her head against the wall next to her for not noticing it.
"I take this as a 'Yes'." Silence chuckled.
"This explains the black magic as well." Luna added "Since they foreign creatures, their magic conflicted with the natural magic of Equestria."
"And harmed the organism of alicorns, whose system is much more sensitive." Cadence finished.
"It also answers the heterochromia and the strange cutie mark, since you had little reference of the inhabitants." Twilight said.
"We could only observe a pegasus flying by and a zebra." Silence shook her head as she sighed.
"Zecora, that's why she warned me few days after we met, and why your cutie mark is so weird, because you based it on hers. It all adds up." Twilight threaded the needle, followed by a long session of tranquility, until Celestia raised her head, along with her volume.
"What have been done have been done, however." Celestia raised her voice, heading out from the room.
"A punishment must be made." Luna joined, as well as everyone else, taking their way to the throne room so enormous, so beautiful, adorned with the biggest stained glasses recording the history like a fragile tape, with the throne sitting it the very end, on the top of all stairs. The princesses walked up, Celestia and Luna in the middle, while the other two taking their sides.
"It is time for the final decision." Celestia said, as her voice echoed through the narrow corridors. A second later, the little purple one felt her old teachers soft feathers at the back of her head, just touching first, but gently pushing her forwards, until she got the message.
"M-me?" Twilight whispered.
"It is time for you to learn the responsibilities of a princess, Twilight." a gentle whisper replied.
"I... I..." Twilight hesitated as she stepped forwards. A decision had to be made, that ends in defeat no matter what. She kept looking back and forth, between the others and her friend, repeating that one little letter, from where she couldn't continue. It was them or her, either she banishes her outsider friend who made a bad decision at the beginning, resulting in possibly never seeing her again, or free her but likely to disappoint Princess Celestia and the others, in fact, even her princesshood might depend on the case. With sweating face, shivering body and stuttering mouth she spoke the last words that decided the destiny of Silence.
"I forgive."
Celestia closed her eyes, a tiny grin grew in the corner of her lips.
"You learned well, my faithful princess." she said in a voice ever so gentle, like a breeze in a warm spring day, making the purple one smile from happiness... that didn't last long.
"Maybe a little too well, even." she continued, as the beautiful, life-giving water of her voice suddenly turned into wicked poison, then fiery lava. But as the mind of Twilight comprehended the happenings it was too late.
"I hereby decree the banishment of Silence to Hollow Shades, for eternity." she shouted, stepping forwards as her words echoed along the room, as if a goddess from above have ordered it.
"The banishment is effective from tomorrow morning." Luna added in the same manner.
"You may take one item at will." Cadence finished, though her words awoken confusion in Luna for a split second, Celestia nodded in approval as she looked back at the broken princess on her left.
"Did you understand the conditions?" Celestia asked the gray one below, who nodded and bowed to her superiors.
"Then it is decided, participants may dismiss." Celestia said, though the only thing she achieved is making Twilight run to her friend for a talk as casual as between friends.
"And now?" she asked her friend anxiously.
"Choose something to bring, send back the keys to Blossomforth... and bid farewell to the others, I guess." She replied with a heavy tone in her voice.
"You have mere hours left here, choose your actions wisely." Celestia hinted from behind, as she gaited away with her sister. Noticing the room slowly fading into a more and more orange color, they decided to follow them to see something truly magical.
The Sun descended even faster than before, for she had to lower the Sun a bit earlier day after day. They gazed over the land of Equestria, where their home, Ponyville was just a smaller splash of yellow next to the enormous forest. Princess Celestia gladly allowed the two mare to share a final sunset on the balcony of her room, from where she was lowering the sun, while her sister raised the Moon from the tower in the other side of the castle.
"Strange... as if it would have been yesterday." Twilight told.
"Mhm..." replied Silence. "Remember when were gazing at the stars, back in Ponyville?" she asked.
It took Twilight a second to dig out the memories, but they were crystal clearly burned into her mind. "Yes."
"Am I any different now, that you know the truth?" Silence asked gently.
Twilight heard this before, in fact, she could recall it exactly without any difficulties. Her answer however needed much more time to form this time.
"Saying 'no' would be a lie, wouldn't it?" she asked back, with a slight sadness reflecting from her face. The Sun disappeared over the horizon in a blink of an eye, leaving only its orange mark left on the sky.
"I must go home now, there are things to be done." Silence said, Twilight following every of her steps, not only for these were the last together, but for she knew she is the only one who can stop her if hell breaks lose. They walked all the way to the train station like average ponies, booked their ticked like average ponies, waited and took the train, just like average ponies... despite all of them knew they're anything but average.
The train was a night type one, with sleeping commodities of eight in each carriage, however the one they traveled in was empty, only the beauty and the beast filled it slightly. The whole wagon was dark red, blue curtains on the walls in case someone would like some privacy, while some firefly-lanterns served for lighting. Twilight took the one on the floor by the door, while Silence chose the one next to it, to her right. The scenery outside slowly began to move as the train rolled out towards its destination, as the sky became more and more close to turn black. They laid down on the pillows, but couldn't feel like sleeping, instead, watched as the busy capital of Canterlot faded into the beautiful view of nature, just for a few seconds before a gigantic echoing sound roared from all direction, shutting off every source of light from outside. It was the tunnel that lead down the train on the mountain, thus it was pretty natural for them. Minutes passed, yet the silence between them didn't break, and the one with the exact same name decided to change in that as soon as they left the tunnel. She stood up on her fours and joined her friend in her bed, who still kept gazing outside the void.
"Do you think they'll forgive me?" she asked from behind.
"I don't know..." Twilight sighed, she still couldn't trust Silence completely after all that happened, and the sadness clearly was there, lurking in her words.
"Well... good night." Silence told suddenly, backing down from the bed with her eyes shut.
"Wait!" Twilight shouted, but for what reason she didn't know, in fact she herself was surprised the word slipped out from her mouth and after a second she added another one "Nevermind... Good night".
Silence chuckled, her eyes showing that burning love inside that unnerved Twilight so many times since they got to know each other "Sleep well, my love." she said in a voice of a sung lullaby, as she drew the curtains together and returned to her own bed.
The Sun didn't wait for long, and soon after their arrival, it already peeked outside to check on the sleeping equines. Silence didn't need much time to choose what she needed to bring as there was one thing left to do in her program. Her clan welcomed her at home with strange expressions, but she had to tell the truth, hoping for the bests.
"Silence? Shouldn't you be in hospital?" asked the zebra.
"I'm better, no need for that." she replied, with a sigh "Girls, I gave up... I told Twilight everything." she said.
"You did what?!" sounded the question collectively.
"I went there to Canterlot and surrendered... I had enough of this, just like you." she said, dripping of frustration. "Don't worry, you won't get any sort of punishment, it was all me after all."
The others stood in complete shock, but their worries soon made them speak up.
"What about you?"
"Banishment to Hollow Shades, I got some time to say bye to you girls." she confessed.
"Then you'll need this." the one with the braided ponytail told, holding the thing they were fighting for for so long: The Core. Silence took it and put it away for the time of a warm hug with them, one by one, when Twilight knocked on the door. It was time to go, time for the second big farewell. Silence put away the device into an old saddlebag and opened the door to follow her beloved Twilight. The others followed her all the way out to the street, waving and bidding farewell loudly for as long as they could hear. Twilight kept smiling despite the events happening kept reminding her that soon they'll part ways, but she knew Silence fought for them, to make them be able to integrate into this foreign society of Equestria, and for that even sacrificing herself.
The road towards the library was even longer than before, and the pegasus felt as if she would go to her execution. They opened the door, the one that lead them to the main hall of the tree she used to live in for a little while. Her friends, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack and even Rainbow Dash showed up, all invited by Twilight.
"Girls, Silence would like to make an important announcement, right?" she said, passing the word to the pegasus in a rather uncomfortable manner.
"Yeah, they let me out from the hospital and..." though she stopped as soon as she saw the alicorn's burning eyes. With a deep sigh she continued "...and I'm the cause of the whole black magic mystery.".
Her confession awoke a collective gasp in the ponies, except for Rainbow Dash, who simply made a cannonball into her own swimming pool of victory.
"A-ha! I knew it. I knew she was up to something."
"Rainbow we're not finished." shouted Twilight madly.
"But I am finished with her." replied Dash "Come girls, we have better things to waste time on." she added, sprinting out from the room.
"You know what I can't stand?" asked AJ "Two-faced liars. They almost took Twilight's most precious thing 'cause of you." she added harshly, leaving the gray mare with the closed eyes behind.
"Losing the trust of a friend is the easiest way to lose a friend... forever." Pinkie gaited past her, taking a huge roll of paper and pencil out from somewhere, looking for something, as soon as she found it though, she shouted back "Hey!" from the door, grabbing the attention of the ones around. The enormous roll of paper was held by her hoof high up, clearly showing a name: Silence. With a confident move the pink one drew a straight line over it, and rolled up the scroll like a yo-yo, going on her way.
"G-girls, I'm sure-"
"Let them go, Fluttershy, they were right." Silence stopped her, noticing the lack of negative feedback from the last two. "And you?" she turned her head around.
"Oh don't expect us to jump into conclusions so quickly, darling, I'm sure you had a good intention to do so." Rarity replied with a manner of a real lady.
"You won't change in our eyes just because of that. It doesn't matter who you are, only what you're doing." Fluttershy added.
"Girls... I don't even know what to say." Silence replied, scratching the back of her head in disbelief, but eventually got the courage to say something she wanted to tell for a long time.
She targeted the unicorn with the ivory coat and with a gentle move, she raised her left front hoof with hers "Rarity, thank you for all the wonderful support, for the beautiful dress, for understanding me, I can't begin even repay all this."
"Oh, hush you!" she chuckled "It's my nature to help".
"Fluttershy..." the pegasus turned to the olive one "Thank you for sharing those wonderful moments, for allowing me to help, for-"
...But the confession was cut off by the bitter sound of the door being knocked on. It was a pegasus, a royal guard with a golden carriage peeking in from the background. It was time to go, the girls came together to a last group hug, before the purple pony princess lead the tamed beast out from her library. Celestia, Luna and Cadence all waited outside, to escort her into her final destination.
Twilight's heart ached more and more the closer they flew to Hollow Shades, a small camping place surrounded with an enormous forest.
"Thank you for caring about me so much." she said, the sadness foaming from her throat endlessly.
"It's what friends do." Silence giggled, hitting Twilight in that very spot she aimed at, her heart. Twilight clearly knew that though her mind agree with that, her heart wanted more than mere friendship, but ironically, she had to taste of her own, bitter pills this time.
"We're stopping here." ordered Celestia, putting the stallions in front to a halt. The princesses left the carriage with the criminal, guiding her forwards so a measurable gap created between them. The alicorns began charging their horns, with Twilight on last place. Though the misery was eating up her heart, she knew that this was a must. Their horns channeled the energy into sparks, that joined together into a multicolored piece of lightning aimed upwards. It later changed direction, scattering in the sky at a point, thus shaping a opaque dome before the sparks hit the ground, making the shell disappear visibly.
Silence, seeing the shell blinking in a distance turned back to see her beloved one last time. Twilight slowly floated towards her, as well as she began hovering towards Twilight as well, until she hit an invisible glass wall.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle, we need to leave." Luna told. Twilight, after looking at the royal trio, took another look at Silence, to memorize ever bit of her gray skin, every detail of her brown mane, her ruby red and emerald green jewels, before her body slowly began to turn, forcing her head to follow it afterwards, but even then, she kept staring at her from the corner of her eyes, as her lips began to move to an encoded sign of the word: "Farewell.". She finally broke the curse and turned away, joining the other rulers.
The forest didn't seem to contain any kinds of danger, in fact it looked like a pretty average and friendly one. Silence gently landed on the ground, and began to walk towards the unknown, taking a look around her new home. With the Core just centimeters away from her and an old secret however she knew well that it's going to be a temporary look, for she planned her new home already. But for now she had to find a shelter for the night. After a few minutes, however she found a possible camp, an old, abandoned hut.
No glasses in the widows, one room, a disgusting rug, an old sofa and a cracked bed, all filled with mildew on the floor, as well as signs of nature's attacks. She threw the rug away to get some space and opened her bag, taking out the Core she levitated as she bit her hooves, creating two small wounds in order to get the blood flowing.
She placed her hooves on the Core, feeling its violent vibration that shook her very bones like an earthquake, and with all her willpower began to focus on it, as the blood slowly formed into cables, leading inside the device, while being engulfed by the dark gray aura of the machine's magic. The whole Core began to glow as the shell around opened up on its other end, revealing its bright orb inside, that began pumping a blue mist outside, like a flamethrower, turning from white to more and more dark the farther it traveled from its origin.
"(Whoa, that's new, I thought it'll shoot lightning like the first one.)" Silence though in her small surprise. Let she didn't stop concentrating. The blue mist grew bigger and bigger, but the object of her desire began to take shape, an orb. It slowly assembled from downwards, fading in really slowly. After several minutes the sphere's shape was clearly seen, and through the blue fog, it's color began to fade in, a somewhat lighter turquoise. The Core didn't stop until the construction finished, giving life to the object as it began to glow like the device that gave birth to it, with a small trail leading back to it, like some sort of magical navel-string. Silence was pleased, the Core seemed to work completely, now it was time to put the test unit to the test. She began concentrating again to create another one, while focusing on the other one's help. A second after her mind completely concentrated on the next orb, the newborn sphere joined in the construction with a similar way as the Core did. However, Silence's attention wandered off to the device, as it's glow slowly began to fade. With a quick thought she ordered her assistant to gather resources, making the light blue object float towards the sickening textile she tossed out from her way. A reversed flame, similar to the previous ones erupted from it, as the rug began to disintegrate into small, white pieces the orb sucked into itself like a vacuum, all in seconds, before rushing to the sofa to tear it into pure energy as well. The Core's lights blinked up once-once every second, but the energy decomposed by the orb quickly got used up in the construction. A shelf and a bed later, the second assistant was finished as well. Silence became a bit worried.
"(Less of a power-drain than the last one, but still....)" she sighed. "(Maybe I should try using pure mana as energy?)" she wondered.
As the day passed by, Twilight, exhausted by the paperwork they had done with Celestia decided to move back to her castle suite to take a small rest. However her mind was only chewing on the thought of one location: Hollow Shades.
Being a studious mare she dug out a scroll of a map of Equestria from her shelf, along with a compass and placed it on the table next to each other. "Hollow Shades... Hollow Shades, there it is." she mumbled, engulfing the geographic tools with her magical purple aura. She opened the window that served her light and stepped outside onto her balcony. "Let's see, Celestia raises the Sun from East, where Hollow Shades is from Canterlot..." she continued quietly, looking up to search for any celestial bodies, finding the Moon slowly raising over the horizon. right towards her direction.
"Anything wrong Twilight Sparkle? Are you lost?" Luna asked in a playful tone from her right. Her horn covered by magic as she brought the night. She didn't even know their bedroom were next to each others'. Luna flapped her beautiful wings gently, switching platforms for a more personal little talk. Twilight was too deep in her thoughts however, taking a few seconds to her to fall back to reality. The presence of the fellow princess however came in handy to ask confirmation about a theory she came up.
"Luna? Do you think Celestia chose Hollow Shades, so I can see her from here every time." she asked, her sound filled with the aroma of doubt, confusion and hope.
Luna chuckled hearing that, not only for she knew her sister all too well to be true, but for Twilight haven't learn her teacher's method so far.
"Sister always loved to share her wisdom in a subtle way." she said, which got Twilight thinking. After all, Celestia only gave small nudges in her studies all the time, even though she haven't noticed them at first. Could this be another one of those? The thought alone confirmed it for Twilight, warming her heart as a smile appeared under her teary eyes.
With a fluctuating voice she let another sentence out "Your sister is the most wonderful teacher in Equestria."
Luna gently pulled the other alicorn closer with a small giggle "I can agree with that, Twilight Sparkle.".
In a sudden, however, a small gasp was heard from the lavender, a gasp of a wonderful, jovial idea.
"Luna, can I ask you something?"
Silence progressed pretty well. She had six orbs by now and the ghostly old cottage she worked in have been completely dismantled. The night began to fall, and it was about time for her big finale. She flew high with the units and gazed over the place, seeing her new home in it. Her thoughts were ever so deep, as she knew the next thing she is going to do will be something she have been thinking of many times before, but refused to do so. Her head sounded a click, as the face opened up once again, with a small, black orb floating out from it. She locked her limb back where it belonged and stared at the pill.
So many times she held this little pill, but never she dared to take it. When her kind began to disappear, she refused to take it, when her closest friends were in trouble, she refused to take it, when entire homeland was being destroyed, she still refused to take it. Though this time was different, this time she knew she can't allow herself making this mistake once again. Her eyes gazed over the windows popped up in front of her eyes, as she ticked in small boxes next to small descriptions of acupoints, places where one can channel magical energy. She kept ticking them in one by one, as awful pain showed up in her limbs, her head and her chest, burning pain of expanding vessels as her acupoints opened up.
She placed the black orb in her mouth, tasted it with her lips, and then her tongue, feeling its strange aroma with all her mouth. She was still hesitating about whether to let the beast out or not, but her decision was clear.
"(I will not make the same mistake twice.)" she thought, crushing the matte black sphere with her teeth afterwards. A gigantic force unleashed in a split second, shoving the debris down her throat as her teeth cracked under its pressure. Silence, after coughing up the awful remains of the sphere began to feel its effect already, as her veins would begin to be filled up with flames, traveling all over her body. Not a second later she felt like burning alive. She grabbed the Core and began channeling the intense magical energy, as her body turned into its complete, real alicorn form in order to hold all the mana released from her secret weapon. She began forming orbs with the already complete ones, as the blue fume suddenly flooded all the scene around, decreasing the visibility to almost zero. The new helpers built up in mere seconds, jumping into action. The powered-up machine didn't want to waste any split-second, and assigned the tasks quickly as lightning to the assemblers. A few began decomposing the trees to free space to the ultimate plan, while every single other one began working on the building the M.A.R.E. dreamed of, the building that will change Equestria entirely, a fresh start, a blank sheet of paper, a new garden with new seeds, seeds that were being planted in that very moment to bloom later as many wonderful flowers. The Core never grew that brightly ever before.
Long minutes passed, when the burning sensation began to fade away inside Silence's body, which shocked her frozen solid.
"What?! No, not yet!" she screamed, with a groan afterwards. She could only hope this will be enough. Though her fury was not overwhelming at all, her disappointment was felt, as she expected more from it. Her eyes wandered over to her construct, a wireframe of a pyramid, that slowly, but continuously began to fade to black. She let out another smaller groan, and with a will of her mind she ordered most of the orbs to work on something different instead. They floated above the pyramid and from upside, the flames began to erupt into a point over the very top of the shape, slowly extending downwards. Silence allowed herself to wipe the sweat off her forehead and rest, as her body, most of all her head was aching. There was nothing to do left but wait until her small turquoise minions finish the job. She turned her head up, gazing to wonderful Moon, and the stars surrounding it. She still recalled that moment when they were stargazing with her beloved once again, which made her turn her head towards the city she was right now, when a strange thing caught her eye.
The stars began to slowly move, making out letters one by one on the western sky, letters that formed into a small sentence: "I MISS U."
Silence's lips began to move from the act, as she knew it truly was Twilight's message, striking a chord on her heartstrings. She put all units to stop production and began slowly moving them to a desired location.
"Luna, look!" Twilight shouted, as the small dance of tiny lights far away in a blue mist stopped, slowly forming a shape that filled the soul of the princess with so much joy her eyes slowly turned a bit of wet, a heart.
"Certainly heartwarming Twilight Sparkle." Luna chuckled, not even questioning the chemistry between the two that she felt from even such great distances. However one last thing was bugging her.
"I'm still a bit worried about that strange fume, however." she said, as she turned back.
"Trust me, I think she just makes herself comfortable." Twilight giggled.
"Well, good night, Twilight. I must watch over and aid my subjects in their dreams." Luna said as she returned the stars to their places, as well as she retreated to her own room on the other side.
Twilight took a last look at the heart below, before joining the land of dreams as well. "Good night, Silence." she said, before leaving the balcony, and with a yawn and a tired swing of her wings, she made herself comfortable in her bed, falling asleep quickly.
The morning greeted the alicorn gently, but early, as her room was facing to the east. She rose up from her beautiful dreams, stretching her wonderful body as she let a small yawn out from her mouth. With her hooves, she rubbed her eyes to motivate the for opening up.
"What a nice sleep." she said in herself as she leaped out from her bed, gently gaiting to the small mirror to brush her mane. She picked up the brush and the mirror and began working on her beautiful manestyle.
From the mirror, the outside scenery reflected, which got her thinking about Silence again. With a smile she headed outside to says "Good Morning" to her friend, but what she saw took her breath away.
In a distance, where yesterday the moving message came from an entirely different object emerged, a huge, dark grey pyramid, with strange, translucent, light green, glowing wireframes of leaf-like things forming some sort of dome over it, rotating around its centre extremely slowly. What in the wide world was that thing? She rushed back to her room, dropping all carried object on the floor. She left her room in a rush, when from her behind, a voice called her.
"Princess Twilight!" it said. It was Celestia, with a serious tone in her voice "I guess you also noticed the pyramid." she added.
"Princess Celestia-"
"Go ahead. We must know if she is up to something, and you're the only one she truly trusts." Celestia replied, even before the alicorn could ask anything, shocking Twilight, who staggered back for a moment, but nodded, rushing out from the castle to see what is happening in Hollow Shades.
As Twilight landed in front of the enormous building almost as tall as the Canterlotian castle, her thoughts gone wild. What sort of power could summon such a gigantic obelisk here? She stepped closer towards the gigantic metal door that was adorned by a steel ring, that began to rotate, sliding the two parts of the device a little after. A familiar face stood behind the door: Silence.
"Si....lence?" she said, barely being able to recover her mind from the shock, though deep inside, she saw that coming.
"Welcome, sweetheart. Come inside." the machine greeted her, leading the way though a small aisle into an enormous room with extreme simplicity, built-in lights provided some visibility inside the completely empty, circular room. A pair of pegasi flew by them, as well as well as another one in a distance, landing in front of a door that slid up, allowing her to leave the hall.
"It might be quite obvious from me to ask, but, what is this place?" Twilight questioned in curiosity and amazement.
"This, dear is my empire, and my new home." Silence explained "This is the Hall, surrounded by the Outer Ring that lets us travel between the floors. Come let me show you." she added as she took a turn in her direction to her right.
"Empire?! What do you mean? In fact, how did you summoned all this in one night?" Twilight quizzed her friend who gave a small chuckle as the door slid open in front of her. Another few pegasi flew by, all grey like Silence, hovering slowly without flapping their wings, one had even a very strange type of wing and definitely traveled faster than the other ones.
Twilight had even more questions piling up in her mind, but being a considerate pony she waited until her friend shoved that specific thing she wanted. They entered another door, with the label "Control Room" over it, finding a small, see-through portal inside between the four walls, with a strange, liquid energy flowing inside it, like between two glass panels. Silence flew through it, but Twilight hit her nose into it, like some sort of glass window.
"Be so kind and grant some access to Twilight here." the gray mare asked an unknown pony hooked up onto gigantic wires that levitated her in the air. Twilight only saw her silhouette as the screens faded her vision, along with the portal's light play.
"Understood." a strange voice answered. "Profile created, access granted."
"Try now, Twilight." Silence asked her, and for the second time, the alicorn managed to pass through the blue object.
"Feel this, sweetheart? This vibration?" she asked, as she stepped closer to her beloved. Twilight did actually feel something vibrating in the air, shaking her bones gently. She nodded as a response.
"This is The Core, the device that has the power of a God. A device that decomposes structures to pure energy, and constructs something different from it." Silence explained.
For Twilight, this was completely unbelievable, her mind just couldn't grasp it despite all the evidence around her, but for some reason, this didn't really surprise her much. After all, Silence was nothing but an alien from another dimension, wrapped into the form of an Equestrian equine.
"Aaaalright, sooo you're saying you made this all by yourself, with this... 'Core' thing... in one night... or were these guys here to help already?" she asked.
"I know it must be difficult to comprehend, but trust me you'll believe it after you see it yourself." she explained, as she put her hooves on the back of her friend. "Obsy, I'll modify the energy sources to the storage room for a while, could you take Twilight to my room please?" she asked her assistant.
"Understood." she replied, as the cables detached from her body. She turned around, revealing her face. She had a gray skin similar to all other ponies', and a dark blue mane that she wore in two bangs on the side and a front style similar to Twilight's. "Follow me, Twilight Sparkle." she asked the alicorn, leading her to yet another portal that made them end up in a sort of cozy living room, that somehow was still a bit too dark to the tastes of the princess.
Windows allowed the lights to enter the dark grey room, that had a white, king-sized bed located in it's side, facing towards the wall. The dark blue carpet, however game a somewhat better atmosphere to the bedroom. A black shelf and a wardrobe, as well as two, blue sitting pillows around a small table decorated the room, giving some extra facilities. From the ceiling, lights seen at the hall were placed to provide light when the night arrived.
"Thank you, Miss..."
"SSU-01 Observer. Mother provided detailed information about you Alicorn Princess Twilight Sparkle, which I recorded in the system. You have no reason to be afraid of possible difficulties in the future."
"I see, thank you Observer."
Silence arrived back, with a strange armored orb she levitated.
"Is that is?" Twilight asked. She excepted something else, something bigger and more powerful-looking, after all, it was a 'device with the power of a God'.
Silence nodded, wrapping her right hoof around around her friend's neck "It's already charged, here, hold it." she said, giving the powerful device to Twilight. The vibration became even more intensive, as she felt the wicked-strong magical aura erupting from its inside.
"Think of something, something simple, I'll help you create that to see it's real."
"Ookay, how about a book?"
"What kind of book?"
"A red one, I guess?"
"Good, now focus on the book as much as you can."
Twilight shut her eyes to imagine the book for a moment, and as she reached full focus the Core began to glow, emitting its dark blue mist.
"Here, let me help." Silence joined to the alicorn, as the blue mist began to gather up in an area in front of them. A few seconds later Twilight took notice of something.
"I see it, I guess." she said, increasing her concentration of the object, until it faded in completely, with the mist dissipating into air as the red book fell to the ground. Twilight couldn't believe it. She walked up to it, took it up to observe it from all directions. It was just too... alien to be true, but it was.
"This is.... this is impossible." she repeated continuously, as she couldn't take of her eyes from the creation she have done. "How?" she asked.
Silence giggled, taking the book out from her friend's grab and gently levitating it onto the shelf "Thousands of years of research of magic and science."
"Science?" asked the alicorn.
The machine walked up to the window and gazed through it's glasses, over the forest. "You know, I knew a girl who said that magic and science are all the same, because it's essence is to look for the root off all things, to understand and advance."
Twilight got thinking for a second, as the thought gave a warm feeling in her heart, it was true after all, for she spent years of her life finding answers to all things, to obtain knowledge and use it for the good.
"...she was much like you." Silence added, as she backed away from the window, and jumped on her bed, where she collapsed with back down, staring at the ceiling. Everything came to a stop for a second, before she made one more painful confession.
"...I'm going to die Twilight."
A shiver went down the body of the princess as she heard those words. She turned back quick as lightning to walk up to her friend, who continued.
"The Core tore my acupoints into pieces, I can feel my system getting weaker and weaker."
"B-but why?! Twilight asked in complete confusion. "Why would you sacrifice yourself for all this?"
"I wanted back those old days, when my nation was active and alive, I just wanted to rule again, to lead something, it is my job, my destiny to control... do you believe in destiny, Twilight?" she asked.
Twilight took a look at her wings, observing them with good care as the answer formed in her head "Yes."
"You're not wrong, dear. You know, they say a great power controls our future, something we cannot see, or feel, or communicate with... but in my view, that power is not that far as it seems." Silence explained.
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.
"Princess Celestia, I'm sure if she doesn't teach you a thing or two you wouldn't be here." Silence chuckled. In a way, she had a point, since Celestia was the ruler of Equestria, thus could control the future of its citizens, like in some kingdom-building tabletop games she used to play as a little filly.
"Observer is having a destiny too, you know, once I'm gone she will be the one who continues my job." she added, turning her vision from the black ceiling towards the princess.
"Don't be so worried, sweetheart, death is not the end, we defeated it hundreds of years ago. It is nothing but a mere obstacle for us, like a phoenix who changes renews her body from ashes. But that's a long road from here." the machine added, seeing her beloved's sadness. Twilight didn't reply, just awaited for more, when the pegasus jumped up, grabbing her hooves.
"However, when I'm gone there is something I would like you to do." she said, with confidence and trust emitting from her orders. "You have to destroy The Core."
Twilight, unraveled from the things heard shouted up "What? Why?"
"We can't let the past repeat itself, Observer is just an emotionless construct, ponies' lives are nothing but mere numbers ands statistics to her, just the way it was to Cryan." she explained.
The princess's soul filled with fear, thinking about what would happen if such power would go to evil hands, Silence made the right decision.
"I'm too addicted to it to do it myself, I can't get myself to make this decision. You, on the other hand, are pure, free from the corruption of this awful power. You will do it for us, won't you?" she asked.
"I will." Twilight confirmed, gently placing her limbs on her friend's. Although she had not have the faintest idea of who or what this Cryan was, she suspected that it must have been a key reason of her being forced to leave her land. If such thing would have happen to Equestria, things would never be the same. However, she was yet to find out what was that, and there waa one way to do so. Though as her mind came through this detour she didn't notice it was one of those moments again. Seconds later did she realize they were deeply wondering helplessly in each other's eyes, while holding hooves like two lovebirds, which's realization she let known of my a gasp and a sudden move of her hooves, making her friend giggle loudly.
"You're so cute, my love." Silence complimented with a scorching passion.
"You know, Silence, I think I know for these strange feelings about you." Twilight explained in a sly manner "You're like a good horror story, whereas every fiber of your mind wants you to stop, you just can't look away but read on."
Though this was a below the belt hit for her, Silence pretty much expected another friendzoning and resented with the thought. In fact, she even decided to it to her advantage.
"So, would you like to hear that story?" she asked seductively "It is long enough to keep you entertained for a long time."
Twilight awkwardly took a step back with a big, strange, yet hilarious grin, but she knew her friend was only teasing for the sake of fun. Though the opportunity was too great to let it go, as she now had a chance to get to know about Silence's past, knowledge about alien magic and technology and almost everything she could imagine... hopefully.
"Well, my time is limited, but I promise to give you a visit, say, once a week if you need company." Twilight offered, which made the pegasus really happy inside.
"I'd be so grateful. Thank you." Silence bowed her head to the princess, forming a huge grin with her mouth. "So what would you like to hear?" she asked, gently calling her friend to the bed with her hooves.
Twilight went into it and joined her friend on the furniture "Maybe your past first, that would be great."
Silence sighed because of the thought of ripping old wounds up once again, but for her princess, she didn't want to hide anything. With a resentful and somewhat sad melody in her voice she began.
"Well then, let me tell you the tragedy of our land, the land we only called: The Sector..."
The Sector II: Episode I
A whole new world
It's about 1:AM. The sun is shining brightly, there are no clouds at all in the sky. Twilight is busy sorting her books in the library somebody knocks the door.
"Come in!" she shouts.
The door opens and a brown maned grey pegasus steps in. Twilight already knew she wasn't from here.
"Hello." Said the stranger though it sounded more like a question.
"Good day, my name is Twilight Sparkle."
"Silence, pleased to meet you." "(an unicorn? I thought only pegasi exist here.)"
Silence's hoofshake was a bit weak and Twilight felt she lacks of self-confidence.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" asked Twilight.
"I'm looki-"
"Hey Twilight have you seen my-" a Pink pony hopped in the room but at the half of her sentence she made a huge gasp and ran out like who saw a ghost. Silence looked at her hoof, then back to Twilight.
"Don't mind Pinkie, she is always like that. Now what were you're looking for?"
"A history book actually."
"History book, got it." Twilight didn't need five seconds but she found it.
"(Woah, she is fast, and she levitates the book with her horn? I need one like that too.)" said Silence in herself.
Twilight gave her book to Silence. "Here you go, don't forget to bring it back."
"Thank you very much." Silence put the book under her wing and trotted out of the library.
"You're welcome, come again (since rarely anypony does)" Twilight added.
"(Okay, now back to that forest where I've been coming from, uggh, which way was it?)". Silence got a bit confused.
With time she found her way to Fluttershy's cottage next to the forest. When the yellow pegasus saw her heading straight into the harmful area she couldn't help but warn her: "Wait! That place is dangerous filled with wild animals and plants and-" but as soon as Silence turned at her Fluttershy became her modest self "... but, umm, if you really want to go there, it's fine."
"Ooookay, thanks for the advice." but the pegasus didn't stop her from heading into the zone of danger.
"(So much colorful pony and stuff in this land. Damn, I feel like I'm a bit out of the row with this grey skin. Ah, it's so dark here even at the middle of the day, no wonder why they avoid this place. Don't even think about that, focus on where you've came from. Those weird looking glowing blue flowers I went around from the.... right. There must be that cave.") Silence did what she was murmuring in herself and found the cave. It was dark, even darker than the forest.
"Hello? Anybody here?" she whispered. Two small lights showed up from a distance blinking in a rhythmic pattern.
"Great, look I've got the information we needed, write down every important thing we'll need." she whispered while slowly advancing down the cave. "Also, I'll need a horn too, or some other mana output device. There are unicorns out there too."
After a few seconds silence a voice whispered back. While the lights started to point at her.
"A horn, I'll get on it."
"But it needs to be hidden. The others know me as a pegasus now, don't forget that."
"Hidden where?"
Silence started to change. Her body started to fade at some parts leaving the left side of her body filled with holes showing. Her left eye was nothing just a giant hole. She pointed at it saying: "Here."
"Okay, come in. We have to hurry."
The secrets of the wilderness
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.
The Sector II - Episode XXIII:
Tartarus Day 1 - Welcome to the Netherworld
Silence flew through the sunrise, her mind still working on emergency scenes and worst case scenarios. Her head all heavy with the PPC inside, she yet to get used to it. Her train of thoughts however wrecked all of a sudden when a mesmerising melody caught her attention. She couldn't resist it, she started looking for the source of the sounds.
A few seconds later she landed on the green steppe outside Ponyville. The beautiful dance of a cello and a lyre welcomed her, her refined friend Octavia with a green unicorn. They instantly stopped when Silence came by and begin to apologize.
"Oh, sorry. Did we wake you up?" the green unicorn asked.
"Huh? No, please continue it's wonderful." the pegasus replied.
"Thank you Silence. I began to worry we're getting too carried away. Silence, my friend Heartstrings." introduced her Tavia.
"Just call me Lyra." said the green pony with a smile of a friend as they shook hooves.
"What a lovely name. Silence, nice to meet you." she replied, filling the lyricist's face with blush "How come you're out here so early?" she asked out of curiosity.
The cellist replied to that, her face became a bit depressing "Back... when I was living in Canterlot, I have been in many estelles. As canterot ponies love classical music, I met many musicians and made so much friends." she confessed.
"I see..."
"But still, since I came to Ponyville... since we parted ways, I miss them so much. Symphony was such a wonderful violist, and Nocturne... her bass solos were paralyzing. We always hung out to practice together in the morning outside Canterlot, as three string-friends." she continued, as her face was so depressed she almost ended up in tears.
"My... my condolences, Tavia. I'm so sorry for bringing it up." apologized the pegasus.
"Huh? No, I didn't mean it like that." corrected her the cellist "Symphony retired later, and Nocturne... she disappeared. I just..."
"...miss the times spent together, and for their remembrance you carried on the tradition with Lyra helping, right?" Silence finished it, making Tavia nod.
"I loved the idea, such passion, such longing for a good old times, ripping up your heart's wounds to let in the light of hope... it really struck a chord on my heartstrings." the unicorn confessed gazing at the sunrise with gently stroking the strings of her lyre. Her cerise eyes were sparkling from beauty and her lips seemed so wonderful as they whispered beautiful words in the air.
It was clear that Heartstrings was an extremely passionate pony, completely emotion-driven, a romance lover's dream. And Silence loved romance and what's more, she loved passion. She was extremely romantic and passionate, yet when time required she was fierce and tough.
But when the pegasus thought she knows her new friend enough, the unicorn made an odd move.
"Oh my, what a cutie mark!" she shouted, surprising Silence completely. Lyra stepped closer to examine it better.
"Are you an artist? Or is this a snowflake? Wait, I know it's a flower, right?" she asked smiling at the pegasus in extreme excitement.
"(What's wrong with her?)" Silence thought. Heartstrings was pretty much like Pinkie Pie, only her smile was much creepier, as her grin was huge, yet her pupils so small. She kept staring at the pegasus like that, until Silence turned away the same way she turned away from Twilight, eventually making the unicorn come to realization.
"I'm sorry, if you wouldn't like to talk about it..." she apologized, making a few steps backwards.
"It's okay. So you practice here every day?" she asked changing the topic fast.
"Once a week. Would you like to join?" asked Tavia.
"If my time allows." smiled back Silence, planning to take off.
"Alright then, see you around." said Heartstrings.
She could listen to their music for hours, but she had an important mission to do.
After a smaller farewell she continued her errand, but the important things in her mind were replaced by the echoing melody of the artists, and eventually she began to long towards her beloved Twilight. Not only Twilight though, but Octavia and even Fluttershy and Heartstrings as well. Somehow Silence kept having a crush on a bunch of ponies, it was a child's play to turn her head if you hit one of her holes in her heart. It might be because Twilight is a strategist, a clever mare with an undying lust for knowledge, just like her, but Tavia was elegant, hi-class, an artist who loved expressing herself in more ways than just words, just like her. She barely realized she was flying over the Everfree, but when she began to focus on the real case again something bugged her ears.
"Who's there?" she shouted turning back suddenly, but none was there.
"(I swear I heard bugs or something.)" she noted in herself. Regardless, she was here, the caverns that lead to Tartarus according to the book.
"(The myth says that this cave leads to the gates of Tartarus. I hope it's not just a bear cave.)" she thought.
Carefully, slowly she walked down the small cave, as she emitted a small light from the barrel of her weapon to keep the visibility at the maximum possible. The cave had a rather flat floor at first but became more and more rough afterwards, on the walls there were no signs of Tartarus.
Eventually she reached a dead end, though something was strange.
"(That's the end? I feel the air rather fresh though... and is this... water dripping?)" she asked. She began to search for some cracks on the wall with her hooves, as well as tried to hear where the sound comes from with her ears. A few seconds later an irritating wind blew at her ear through a crack, but at least she found it. A smaller blast with the PPC gave a free way to her to a narrow corridor. This was undoubtedly not natural.
The corridor led to two ways, she had to decide she either goes to left, or right. She chose left, focusing her cannon in case something attacks, but all she got was a room, with three gemstones outside a magic circle. It was some sort of puzzle, and the answer clearly was behind that different colored stone wall on her left. Picking the easier way she blasted down that wall too, ending up in a natural-looking cave again, with another magic circle and the same gemstones. There were words carved into the wall as well as a smaller hole on the wall big enough for a pony to crawl inside. The tunnel wasn't long at all, and eventually, Silence ended up in a room in the cave with a huge hole on the wall. Wait, that was the same room she came from a few minutes ago. The pegasus looked back and forth in confusion, the quietly giggled when she realized the way she was supposed to enter. Trotting inside she took the right side this time.
The tunnel was completely rectangular shaped, all of its walls were flat, but the whole thing became really wet with time, with water dripping from the ceiling and puddles everywhere on the floor. The corridor suddenly ended at a chasm however. She got back into a natural environment. Looking down, only the abyss awaited her, however when she looked up, she saw artificial platforms built inside the walls. She looked around if she can find out where those lead, but their placement was so random it definitely not acted as stairs. Only another hole in the wall caught her attention.
She flew inside. Its surface was not as rough, rather soft and dusty. The tunnel was rather strange, it kept leading her upwards, eventually Silence got back to the same gigantic room as she came from, except she was in a much higher spot. The pegasus decided to fly as far high as she can in the huge hall, eventually reaching its top.
"(This makes no sense! Where does this noise come from then?)" she questioned in confusion. Lacking in any more energy she flew into a small hole closest to her and looked for an exit. She slowly began to lose her mind and panic, especially when she reached the end of that tunnel after long minutes of desperate walking. She had enough, without any thinking she began to infuse black magic into her horn to and began to shoot the wall upwards until she dug out, causing huge clouds of mist, she could barely see anything in.
After she opened her eyes, she noticed the environment became completely different. Her little mindless rampage drained most of her energy, she was so exhausted she could barely stand on her legs. She took off her weapon to clean it from the dust. Her hooves feeling the warm ashes as the air was filled with smoke. From all directions, ugly black clouds and dark grey mountains intimidated her spitting lava into huge ponds. It was just like the books said, creepy, deserted and volcanic. From a distance however, a giant black circle based building was standing out from the environment. With no windows, amazing obsidian adornation and a sharp top, it looked magnificent. The was to pegasus ran there as soon as she could, almost leaving the PPC behind. She put it back quickly in its place and was to reach her goal when she noticed a gigantic, black-furred, three-headed monster. The description of the book fit perfectly, it was undoubtedly Cerberus... taking a nap. Seemed strange in such a place but she was lucky she didn't need to fight this thing. Behind him were the gates, huge obsidian gates of the even bigger temple, simply breathtaking. All she needed was to snuck by him, easy-peasy just a simple invisiblity spell. But when she tried it something unexpected happened, her magic output didn't work. She didn't know the source of the problem, yet but she feared from the worst: that her horn broke. Maybe she hurried too much when she disconnected the PPC from the system? It was rather stressing in such situation, she had only one choice to avoid a fight with the beast: sneaking by.
Extremely carefully, on her hooftips she tried to pass by the demonic creature. Then, when she tried to open the extremely heavy-looking gate, the worst happened. The beast awoke, and as soon as it saw the intruder it roared furiously and charged. Unfortunately this couldn't be said about Silence's horn, and thus she could not use the PPC either. She kept trying and trying, but no response. As the beast prepared to attack Silence gave up and with all her focus, she decided to avoid the incoming attack. Cerberus' heads howled in three tones, its eyes became all red and the monster jumped on the pegasus. The adrenaline slowed time down, Silence flapped with her wings to dodge the charge, and mid-air, her weapon automatically fired itself, hitting the beast in the face. Cerberus, blinded by the light hit the door with his head, thus opening it. Not wasting a second, Silence flew in before the monster could get up. The temple inside was covered in marbles and paintings of heaven and hell, but as Silence landed on the light-grey marble floor - that was adorned with a blue star and a golden circle in the middle began to move. The floor opened from the centre of the room with deep abyss under it. The pegasus flew up and what she saw was breathtaking. It was the circular cavern she came from, the rectangular, artificial bricks began to glow with a pattern. Symbols carved on them lit up emitting a light blue light, along with lines of similar, glowing lines connecting the runes together. Even though they were all in different places, looking from above, from the place where the golden circle was a second ago the entire abyss looked like an enormous magic circle in the abyss. Cerberus was up on his four feet again, there was no time for thinking. Silence, still unsure but with her mind made up closed her wings, diving down into the darkness.
As she fell faster and faster, her vision became more and more blurry. She kept passing in between the increasing amount of runes with such a speed the whole thing looked like a giant tunnel. Suddenly, its light blue was began to rip up like old wallpaper, with a colorful mist in the emptiness under it. Slowly all the blue was ripped off, the gravitation eventually disappeared and the pegasus felt like she is going forwards rather than downwards, in the mysterious dust cloud. The colors however faded to white, as her vision became filled with more and more of a white. Suddenly everything seemed to stop, the fog became so thick she couldn't tell the speed, and eventually, her hooves touched something. It was stone, she was standing in the middle of nothing, her vision still not getting used to the white. She checked her system if everything is alright, and it seemed so. After some magic energy infusion into her weapon the pegasus became somewhat relieved it is working again.
She slowly took a step forwards, and another one. The stone was so cold, everything was so cold and damp. A few steps later, the fog partially cleared away, but not completely. She was in a forest, the fog was still so thick the sky was not seen at all. Everything looked so grey. From a distance though, something moved in the woods. Silence froke out, her sudden steps were echoing and seemed so loud in the quiet. Though the more noise she made, the more things started to show up, with ghostly, echoing sounds. They were coming for her, they were definitely coming for her. Suddenly, something touched her back, something cold, it paralyzed her body. She wanted to move but she couldn't... at all. The little touch however became painful chill, that went down deep, even inside her bones. It hurt her so much, and it was spreading all over her body. She broke the silence began to scream, scream as loud as her throat could bare. But all seemed so useless, the only thing in her mind was filled with was regret.
"Haayyahh!" screamed a high-pitched voice from behind, suddenly making her binds and pain disappear in a blink of an eye. She looked back, and from the black fume a ghostly, bit of transparent face looked at her.
"Come! I've got no time to explain!" she said as she grabbed Silence's hoof, picked up a pole-blade from the ground with her mouth and began to run like hell. Silence had no idea what's going on, from the woods however, the demons also started to charge at them. They ran side by side, the demons starting to swarm from the woods, Silence didn't look anywhere but forwards. In a blink of an eye two demons jumped in front of them to block the way. The stranger turned her head to her right, grabbed the end of her blade, and with her long tail, she began to fling her at the enemy without even slowing down.
"Hya!" she screamed at the black, red-eyed pony-looking creature as she cut it in half, making it scream up, then with a black smoke emitting from it turning into dust.
"Get out of my way!" she added, killing off the other one. Then she put the weapon back in her mouth. Eventually they got out of the forest, into a lakeside view with a small, old shack, a boat and an old ferry.
"There's the house, run!" she shouted, pushing Silence forwards. Silence didn't even question her, nor thought about helping just sprinted as fast as she could.
Silence only looked back once she was inside, the monsters charging at the girl who seemed to be confident what she was doing. She started making faster and faster circular motions with her blade, using her tail again. From below her, a circle started to fade in, eventually shining as bright as the runes Silence seen before. Then she threw up the blade, creating a giant pillar of half-transparent light, that continuously began to fade out, but with every circle the blade did it reloaded her brightness. The mare just stood there, as the corrupt creatures literally disintegrated in her pillar. The blade became slower and slower with each turn and eventually came to a full stop, falling next to her owner. Her legs began to shiver, and in all of a sudden, she collapsed on the ground. Silence instantly kicked the door she closed a few seconds ago and ran to her help. She grabbed her heroine, put her on the back and dashed back quickly. The demonic creatures were still standing by behind the bushes, but when they saw Silence getting close towards the weapon, they decided to retreat... for now.
The little shack had only one room, a cracked window, a really old wooden bed, a table, an empty bookshelf and lots of mildew. It seemed so abandoned, Silence wondered if she lives her or is this just a shack in the middle of nothing. She put her on the wet bed.
The mare was a dirty-white maned, white coated earth pony, she had a really long straight mane and tail and she wasn't completely opaque. Silence barely though, but could see the bedsheets under her. Even touching her was strange, she was cold as ice, but not bone-chillingly. She had no cutie mark either.
"Are you okay? Should I bring something?" she asked, no answer... for first.
"Ma...gic. Don't... magic." she moaned. Her voice was incredibly weird, but cute. She sounded to have some sort of reversed echo, and a cute voice that was sort of similar to Fluttershy's.
"Alright, I won't." the pegasus replied to the mare, whose life started to leak out from her eyes.
"Hey, hey! Don't die on me girl!" she shouted as her savior's eyes shut slowly. Not caring at all about the temperature she put her head on the chest of the mare, listening to her heartbeats. She was still alive, what a relief. Silence went out once again, to bring her weapon back. She hurried nowhere this time, grabbed the pole-blade and returned, for her surprise, the stranger changed to a more comfortable pose. She felt asleep. Silence took a closer look, swept her mane away from her face and kissed her ice-cold cheek.
"Thank you." she said "Rest now, you did more than enough today."
Now that the potential danger was gone, she had some time for recording the events. Opening the log in the control panel she began to speak out, and thus write the followings.
"Day 1: Tartarus... I guess. After a strange possible detour and some... changes in the plans I finally found the gates of Tartarus and ended up in a hall that seemed to be a teleport station. From information gathered from various resources I can assume this thing is Tartarus. It quite a foggy and not the most charming place, but hopefully will be good for training. The area is heavily inhabited by demonic, hostile creatures and insects of some sort with similar attribute, but I've yet to find out more... though not all of them seem to be hostile. It seems to be one weather and one time of day though, the foggy one. I'll try to report more ASAP. End of recording one."
She closed the log and let out a heavy sigh "(Darn, what did I get myself into.)". Her eyes were filled with regret as she turned back to check on her friend but what she saw made her somewhat embarrassed.
She was awake. "You kissed me." the girl said, looking at the pegasus with her sweet, blue eyes, and her face all blushed. Silence was kind of speechless, instead they kept staring at each other for moments.
"Hmmm... how was it again?" she asked in a rather calm voice.
"Just as I said, it was just leaking from everywhere my queen. It was so strong I could sense it from miles away, like a pantry with four legs." he repeated, bowing before his superior, whose grin turned into a wicked laughter.
"Mahhahahahahh, I think we should look a bit more after this... lovesick pegasus." she laughed.
She couldn't have such an opportunity go to waste, her highness sent out two more units towards Ponyville.
The Sector II: Episode XXIV
Tartarus: Day 2 - Whispers
"Feeling better now?" Silence asked as she looked behind from the window.
"Mhmm." nodded the ghost pony slowly standing up from her bed and walking to the pegasus.
"You should not get up yet." Silence told, making the girl turn away with a small squeak followed by an "Okay.". Now she not only sounded similar to Fluttershy but she also behaved like her, if not even more modestly.
"Did you want to ask something?" asked Silence suspiciously.
"No, nevermind." she replied getting back to her bed and sitting down.
"Then let me start it." Silence smiled following her "I'm Silence, what's your name?".
The ghost however just squeaked and turned her head away. It seemed like she'd end up crying in any moment.
"You can tell me, we're friends." the pegasus added as a sort of motivation, gently holding her new friend's hoof.
"I... don't know."
This sort of surprised Silence, but she got a solution. "Then how about making up one? Whisper maybe? I think it's really cute."
"Yes... cute." Whisper replied, taking a look at Silence, not exactly at her, but a bit above her head, only for a little moment before she turned away. The pegasus noticed that, that was the second time she did it now.
In a sudden, however Whisper put her other hoof on Silence's slowly forcing it in, through her skin.
"Au! Au! Aarrghh!!" Silence screamed from the bone-chilling pain, making the ghost take it out in an instant.
"S-s-sorry!" she apologized "It's... just...".
"Just?"
"You're not dead, are you?" whispered the white mare looking slightly over Silence's head again.
"No..." answered the pegasus slowly.
"You know, when somepony dies, the spirits give their soul a last task: to travel to Tartarus." Whisper said, standing up from her bed, walking towards the window.
"They receive their final judgment right before entering this world, if their soul is pure, I'll notice their arrival." she continued, looking into the abyss of the forest in front of her hut, taking her spear from the ground, then taking her way out, slowly walking on the old dock, all the way to its end.
The lake was all covered in mist, pure whiteness was the only thing seen, as it'd be the end of the world.
"If a soul is pure enough, it's my job to take her to the Castle of the Souls." Whisper continued.
"The Castle of Souls?"
Whisper nodded with one of those cute sounds she tends to make, then elegantly swung her blade at the fog, making a small way open in the mist, revealing its secret. The castle stood on a small island, it was huge, just like those old horror-tale castle's in the book.
"And what happens to the one's who aren't... pure?" Silence asked turning to her slowly. Whisper looked really depressed.
"The corrupted ones are all bound to the same fate, they'll keep looking for the castle for the end of time, with the corruption of their soul slowly taking over their body." she said, staring at a corrupted one slowly wandering around the riverbank meaninglessly, like a zombie.
"I see, you're a ferrymare of Tartarus then, protecting the pures and showing them the way." cleared up Silence, making her friend nod quietly.
Silence, seeing her new friend being so close to end up crying hugged Whisper "If something is wrong, don't hesitate to tell me."
"O-okay." Whisper replied backing away a little with intense rose blush on her cheek, looking over Silence again.
"I guess it's my turn then. I came here to Tartarus to practice my magic skills without being noticed by the royalty. I thought the evil spirits said to be here would make excellent practice targets." confessed Silence the truth, knowing that her friend will not cause trouble in real life anymore.
"Magic?" asked Whisper in confusion "But... you're a pegasus... or not?"
"Actually, it's quite complicated..." Silence replied scratching her head. "Better get into it, the sooner I become more powerful the better." she added walking out to hunt for spirits.
"Silence..." Whisper said "The corrupted can sense the presence of the pure and the living, once they know you're there, every single corrupted will target you, with time they'll devour your soul." she added. She stood completely still, her pupils shrunk a little, and her voice's melody became still and flat instead of shy and descending. She was quite... creepy.
Silence double checked her system as she headed out and everything seemed to be perfectly fine. She seemed to notice some sort of flies as she traveled further from the shack. They looked like small orbs with two red wings and two huge, red eyes. In a distance walked senselessly a character, a pegasus, black, stains covering his grayish-blue body that looked even more colorless in the environment. Silence began to charge her PPC, with completely normal magic at first. However, as soon as the first bits of magic flown into her horn the creature turned its head at her. Silence shot from the shock, hitting the pegasus in its wing that turned into dust as soon as the violet, searing-hot plasma cut through it, like knife through butter, with a huge whiplash sound. The creature began to ran towards her. Silence's heartbeats suddenly skyrocketed from the adrenaline. A few more shots and a defeated enemy later, unnerving sounds were heard from the forest.
"(Whisper wasn't joking about this. Darn, this give me chills. Anyway...)" she thought, charging her PPC now with black magic "(Bring it!)".
All the creatures, even those pesky parasites turned towards her to hunt her. The task was simple: kill everything that moves. They just kept coming and from almost every direction. Silence flew up, kept firing her canon tearing the increasing amount of demons apart. From a distance, though something kept flashing, irritating her eyes. It was Whisper, ready to jump in when things get out of control. This gave the pegasus a little more safety feeling, though she still desperately fought back. Seeing this won't last forever she tried something else, attaching the mana output to her fangs again, she infused them with black magic as well, releasing a huge, dark fume which the evil disappeared in completely.
Her body soaking from sweat, yet shivering from adrenaline as the demonic sprites and the corrupted souls kept chasing her and eventually reaching her, trying to capture the body with an icy pain. First just a small fly on her chest, then another on her back hoof, then a hoof on her back. As she desperately tried to shoot off the horde withholding her screams, white practices started to gather around her.
In all of a sudden, she found herself in the shack again. She ran to get to the window, seems like Whisper made them change place, as the pegasus saw her friend demolishing the foes as it'd be a plaything. Silence kept watching her in awe, the little ghost who was such a shy cutie turned into a ruthless warrior in combat. As she slain the very last demon, she throw her mane in the air, wiped the sweat from her forehead, then like if nothing would have happened, she proceeded back to her shack.
"This was amazing! Thank you so much, I almost left my tooth there." complimented Silence, bowing and shutting her eyes as sign of apologization.
Whisper just blushed and looked away, her smile brighter than the sun in the overworld, but her lips almost instantly curled downwards after.
"Do you... feel any stronger?" she asked silently with worry spicing her whispers.
"Yes, I feel my mana pool slowly extending." sounded the answer.
Whispser smiled back at the pegasus, just for a second, before a visible shiver went down her transparent back, as a cold hoof would touch it, her mouth releasing a sudden, slightly erotic gasp. The sudden move made her silky, white-gray mane fly up in the air.
"Everything's okay?" Silence asked.
"Somepony arrived." Whisper said, running out immediately.
"Wait, let me help!" the pegasus shouted running after her friend.
"NO!" screamed back Whisper "I mean... please don't." she corrected herself.
Silence didn't give it up that easily, though. She continued to persuade her "We can fight them back together, in a team, it'd be a perfect opportunity to visit the castle too."
"But... if they get us... I'll never forgive you." the ghost replied, shutting her eyes, making Silence get closer, making a promise as she took her front hoof once again.
"They'll never get to touch us, I promise." said Silence, the confidence in her eyes piercing through Whisper, who just gently took out her hoof from her friend's hold an ran to help the newcomer.
"Hello? Anypony there?" said the spirit of a mare in a distance. The demons didn't notice the escort, yet. The spirit was an unicorn, a light pink coat with a beautiful long, blonde mane and a fancy saddle adorning her. She looked like somepony from Canterlot.
"Quick, follow... us! We have no time." shouted Whisper.
The girl ran after them, but as soon as she stepped into a little puddle she grossed out and flinched back, shaking the water off her hooves. Sounds from a distance began to growl louder and louder, they were coming again.
"Silence!" shouted Whisper.
"On it!" replied the pegasus, grabbing the unicorn's hoof and running towards the dock. The demons extremely outnumbered them, but the tactics were simple: Whisper covers the back with her long tail and long spear, while Silence shots everything in front. Intense, echoing moanings rained upon them as they progressed through the forest. The safety seemed so far yet it was so close. Eventually, though they reached out of the woods.
"In the boat!" shouted the earth pony, pointing towards a small old boat, then continuing to drive away the corrupted.
The demons usually didn't follow the ponies towards Whisper's hut, probably because they knew what's there, but this was not the case. The unicorn barely could get any air as she jumped into the boat, but Whisper already ran there and hit it with her speed, letting it go onwards the lake. Silence flew up and like a mid-air defense line bombarded the enemy. Whisper pushed a boat another time, however as she tried to jump on it the spear held her back, she saw she can't make it with it anymore, she needed to sacrifice it without thinking or else the boat floats to far. Leaving the weapon behind she jumped on her boat, barely, but making it after all.
Silence, seeing that she's the last one was to just fly there when the shine reflected from the spear caught her eye. She flew on the wet sand and was to pick it up quickly with her mouth, but as soon as she bent over an awful pain struck her head. She began to scream, so like the other two, she could barely move from the icy paralyzation, but with a quick strike she stabbed the demon right in it's jaw, then cut its head in half, making the foe turn to dust with a painful echo. The pegasus shiftily took the spear to its owner and landed on the boat. Only a few demons tried to follow them there, but most of them disappeared under the all-white liquid. The ponies were safe... for now.
Whisper, shocked yet relieved about her friend's deed told her gratefully, with a rosy-red cheek "My spear! T-thank you."
"You're welcome." replied the pegasus, taking one more look back.
Whisper then grabbed her weapon, and used it as a rod of some gondola in order to control the movement of the boat. The water seemed all white from the neverending fog, the boat full with the lady lieing in the front, Silence sitting in the middle, and Whisper on its very back, standing on two hooves only.
There was no sound but the water's, until Whisper began to sing. Even though it was made of "Aah!"-s only, it was so good, no, so wonderful. Her voice somehow turned into honey that poured slowly in their ears, it was so mesmerizing... she sounded like an angel.
About thirty seconds later, though she stopped, she got to an end of her song.
"This was so enchanting...." the pegasus complimented with a look she only gave to her beloved Twilight so far.
"It... was?"
Silence nodded "Did nobody say that ever to your voice?"
"Well, when I ferry ponies from one side to other, they rarely speak..." she said, depressingly looking away into the emptiness "Even when they do, they cry and tell me about their regrets...." she added, her pupils slowly descending. This explains why she's sad all the time, death really is a traumatic event, Silence knew that. She almost got lost in her thoughts again when a sobbing sound hit her ears. The unicorn in the front, she was crying, even though she tried withholding her emotions she couldn't.
Whisper spoke up at the back with a gentle, caring voice "Don't worry, everything's going to be okay. Tell me what hurts your heart, I'll listen.".
"No, it's alright." the mare said, rubbing the tears off her cheeks, taking a huge, deep breath.
Silence opened her log again, seeing it was pretty safe now and began to write.
"Day 2:Tartarus. I feel like I completely lost my sense of time. There is no day or night, no summer or winter here, that's pretty creepy. The demons in this place are no joke, hopefully I can find something out to. Currently I'm on my way to the Castle of Souls located at the other side of the river. Added that the demons can't find this place I can assume it's safe. I have to be quick though, a change can come at any time now. End of entry two." As she closed her control panel, Silence turned back "Could you sing that song again, please?"
"Of course, princess." chuckled back the ferrymare. That last word kind of surprised Silence, though.
"Thank you, but I'm no princess." she answered, making Whisper look over her again.
"Is it written above me that I'm a princess?" she raised an eyebrow, still smiling.
"Huh? No! I mean... you know, I can see the remaining lifespan of people who're alive..." she explained in quiet words.
"...and my numbers are?" continued the pegasus.
"Nothing.... just.... lines." replied the ferrymare, then shook her head an with another sweet smile she changed topic "So the song? That one I sung last time or some other song?".
"As long as it's your voice, any song is good for me." winked back the pegasus.
Whisper began to sing the first song that got into her mind, calming the passengers as they slowly advanced forwards, disappearing in the white fog.
Twilight shut the book, it has no name on its cover, not even its spine, and was pretty thin.
"(Okay, that was adorable at first, but now...)" she thought as she took a look at the desk, what's shelves contained all the drawings, all the little poems and music sheets about the little unicorn. Even if that wasn't enough, this small romantic story about them two was just the icing on the cake. She put the book back on Silence's shelf where she found it, exactly at the same spot on the other side, alone, like an anti-social rebel of literature. Another icy chill went down on Twilight's spine as she recalled that scene where Silence gently kissed her neck in that little story of carnal desires, not even realizing someone knocking at the door for first. It took her a second to return from her fantasies, breaking down in a blink of an eye.
"(Oh Celestia, it's her! What am I gonna do, what am I gonna do?! Okay, just keep calm and do as you'd have read nothing. But what if she finds it out?! Did I put them back in the right order? I must-)"
But the knocks interrupted her, and they sounded angry. She ran to the door but was too afraid to open it, her hoof slowly progressing towards the knob, shaking from fear, sweating from despair, when another series of even louder knocks made her grab it an open the door instantly.
"Gah, finally." Rainbow said. "What on Equestria took you so long? Weren't you found the exit?" she shouted clearly lacking in patience.
"And why are the curtains drawn together?" asked Rarity right next to Dash with a much more worried tone. "Is everything fine, darling?"
"It's just...aaaah... horror story!" shouted up the purple pony with a giant grin in the end.
Rainbow smacked her face "You and your... ah, leave it, Princess Celestia would like to discuss with something."
"It must be really important if she came by herself instead of calling us to Canterlot." noted Rarity.
They headed to the library where Pinkie Pie and Applejack just arrived. The princess were waiting for them already, with a chest next to her. As she noticed everypony has gathered she began her speech.
"As you probably all know, we had terrifying events nowadays. The power of the black magic kept erupting in various locations, breaking the harmony of the mana flow." Her eyes were shut as she said those words, but as the sun she raised day by day raised her eyelids the alicorn "Most of the eruptions were coming from Ponyville and the Everfree Forest, but few days ago we noticed eruptions at the Gates of Tartarus as well."
"Are they fleeing? Pfft." laughed Dash.
"Not likely. Rather sounds like reconnaissance." suggested Twilight.
Celestia nodded gently, her eyebrows showing how serious the problems may be "If the dark magic was coming from mere scouts, there might be a much bigger threat than what we were expecting."
She released the seal and opened the chest with her powerful magic, taking out golden necklaces with polished gems in their middle, along with a fine tiara.
"Take the elements, if something happens, you'll be the first who can stop it. I'll visit the town again afternoon and assign a couple of units to guard the area. We must prepare for the worst." her highness said, walking towards the balcony, but before she went on her way, she turned back and raised her serious, steel-heavy tone to a more elegant one.
"Oh, and I'll assign Shining Armor as well, if that doesn't mean any problem." she added, her voice being so lovely and her smile being bright as the Sun.
With a few elegant flaps Princess Celestia flew away in the sunrise.
The Sector II: Episode XXVI
Tartarus - Day 4: The fan
"There we are." said Whisper as she docked with her boat.
"So, um, are we just going to... you know, go along the shore and look for it?" she asked with doubt.
"So far I have no better plan. Meanwhile, though you might as well tell me a bit more about this place, maybe it'll come in handy." Silence replied with a sigh and a yawn following her sentence.
Thus, they took their way to the left in the sand, looking for anything shiny. The scene didn't change anywhere as the went down the riverbank: water to the right, woods to the left and fog everywhere, not to mention the demons.
"Hmm... Do you think the demons could take it?" asked the pegasus.
"They're not really intelligent, but it is possible. You know, this river is endless, things won't change as we go, so if they did pick it up..."
"We're just wasting time... Is there anywhere else it might be?" Silence told, finishing Whisper's sentence.
"I don't know..." turned away the ghost.
Suddenly, from the corner of their eye something shined up. They came closer, and by the way it looked it was the fan of the princess... almost. The feathers all disappeared from the hold, the golden handle cracked at places and an onyx gem missing from a side. It wasn't as graceful and elegant anymore, but it was still a piece of memory the princess needs badly. Silence flew closer.
"(It is too easy.)" she thought and began to look for traps over and around the item, she even borrowed Whisper's spear to stab into the water, just in case, but nothing. But as soon as she touched it something grabbed her, a quick black shadow erupted out of the gold and before Silence could even scream it crawled up to her head and swallowed her entire body as a whole.
"Silence!" screamed Whisper at the top of her lungs as she ran to her friend, ending up also being engulfed by the black mass.
Slowly they woke up in a strange place, a huge swamp.
"For attempting theft against a pure soul, the outsider Silence and the ferrymare has been found... Guilty."
"Uugh." Silence told as she slowly regained consciousness.
"Executioner Gaia?" said Whisper who was already awake.
As Silence stood up she noticed a griffin looking down from a giant treetusk, carved in a way that it look similar to those tables af courts. Judging from that and the way she spoke it was clear that they were on one. The courtroom however was nothing but a mossy swamp filled with enormous trees.
"You know her?" asked Silence in sudden shock.
"She was the judge who decided the fate of the dead, whether they're pure of corrupted, but later she turned corrupted herself as well, that's why they use runes insist-"
"Quiet!" shouted the griffin in anger. Her feathers and bodyparts stained with the black corruption, but not entirely.
"Executioner, we were only to take back the fan to the princess."
"The fan has been found guilty for being both black and white at the same time, so did you." stomped the gryphon on the trunk she was standing on.
"What do you mean?" shouted Silence, raising her voice.
"You entered this realm, the realm of dead as a living, thus unbalancing the natural flow, along with the ferrymare helping you. You both committed a crime against the law of Nature but now you'll pay for it."
Gaia really was crazy... crazy and corrupted. Silence wanted to shoot her down so bad, but that might have meant losing the fan as well. She decided to try another approach.
"Is there any way we can prove our innocence?" she asked.
"For a creature so sinned and corrupted like you, immortal being, I'd not allow, but it is not my choice. Lust, greed, hatred and most of all dishonesty, your crimes should not be tolerated at the slightest." replied Gaia, with a piercing look she made, glinting her intense violet irises. "...however, everyone deserves a second chance."
The gryph raised her volume "To prove her innocence, the sinned must participate through the Purification Ritual. Only afterwards they are allowed to achieve nirvana. If you want to receive your fan, you must pass the ritual as well."
"And what does this ritual consists of?" asked Whisper with a sort of fright showing on her face.
"It's really simple, each of you are going to carry a wagon through the land. The wagons are as heavy as your sins are." explained Gaia pointing behind herself, to two empty wagons.
The two girls took a look at the rusty old carts. The wheels and the holder made of wood, with an all rusty crate made of steel bars, like a small mobile jail. The steel rings completely covered by rust, but they had no choice but to put it on.
"Steady? Follow me then." said the gryphon, leading the way through the swamp of gigantic trees. Silence however could barely move her wagon, despite it was empty. No matter how hard she tried, the wagon didn't want to move much. Her hooves dug into the swampy, wet terrain as she tried, as well as the cart leaving a trail after itself as well. Whisper on the other hand had no such problems, her wagon seemed pretty lightweight compared to hers. Still she seemed to suffer as well. Silence however was breaking sweat, moaning constantly as she tried to move.
After a bit of painful hard trying Silence finally got to make her load move in a somewhat normal way, until Gaia led them to an uphill session.
Whisper collapsed in despair. The sadistic Gaia just grinned wickedly as she looked behind while walking up the hill.
"We can't...nngh....stop now...nnngghh...we....must....get...the fan." motivated her Silence from behind while shedding a tear from sheer exhaustion and pain.
As they reached to the top, Gaia turned around.
"Get into your wagons." she said, making the two ponies open the wooden top of the cage, and crawl inside.
The gryphon grabbed the two steel canters and put them on her back legs and began to pull.
"It is time for the second part of the ritual." she said. In a sudden a fierily path appeared in front of them, burning the huge forest into ashes in a split second. The gryphon began to pull them onwards the transparent, orange way that was surrounded by huge flames. The two ponies just kept looking in shock when a literal flashback appeared. Suddenly they found themselves somewhere completely different.
"I know I can't trust you, you're now hereby exiled from the Castle, and thus banned from nirvana, forever." shouted Princess Nirvana at Whisper, suddenly disappearing in the same flash afterwards.
"Wait! No! Princess!!". But it was too late. The ferrymare got back from the illusion, into the pulled jail.
Meanwhile, Silence had her own fantasies.
"Master, do you think it is a good idea?" a familiar voice of a blonde asked a brown hairier girl, while sitting on a bed.
"Trust me, if this works we will never have to be afraid if the Sun anymore. We'll rule both the day and the night." the brown one with the huge wings replied, piercing the injection into her friend's shoulder, than flashing up.
-
Few seconds later another one appeared. Screams from a dark room were heard. A girl screaming, like if she were killed. The voice of the same, blonde girl as before tried to comfort her "Shh. It's okay, it's okay. Master will come and-" but before she could finish her sentence, the pink haired screamed again and with a huge swing she clawed right into the face of her friend. A flash appeared again then another one few seconds later.
-
A blacked-out forest. Some strange sounds of crawling were heard.
"April! Are you there? April!" the brown girl asked while wondering around. In a sudden she found another girl, with huge, black cat ears, a tail, sharp claws, wearing a suit. She just crouched there, in front of a tree filled with clawprints everywhere. Her body was shaking, but she turned around, showing her enormous groan and two pupils with such strange details. She behaved like a wild animal, groaning and wheezing.
"Okay, lil' Domy! I won't hurt you. Let me just-" but the girl, with a huge battle groan attacked, leading to yet another flashback.
-
Silence knew what those were, as well as who those were: Memories. Her heart felt being stabbed all over again and again and again. And the memories kept coming and coming.
A girl being shot in a dark alley. An explosion in the middle of a forest. A horde of fairies slaughtering each other in the middle of the desert. She knew them all, and she didn't want to recall them ever again. During her over a thousand years of life, she has seen so much things, she made so many mistakes, she fought so many wars... she gathered so many sins.
Every flashback was just another claw tearing up the old wounds, making them bleed again.
-
The entire hall was filled with fairies, all looking the same way, either red, green, blue, or brown, waiting for the orders. A short, brown haired girl with huge wings were standing in the middle, completely quiet, her nerves on fire when a rectangular hologram popped up.
"Hey, Master!" a familiar voice, the voice of the blonde girl from before said, her voice softly distorted by the device and her face smiling gently with a reddish glow. "We fixed the TTD's anchor, you should be back soon. Look!" she said holding up a cake to the camera.
"Happy Birthday to You!" she started singing, an entire crew joining from behind "Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to you Mel! Happy Birthday-"
"NOOO!!" screamed Silence releasing an uncontrollable shockwave, breaking the illusion into pieces. She were crying rivers, so heavily she barely got any breath.
Gaia just took a lazy look back, stopping the cart and saying "Did you regret the sins you had? We arrived then."
"Wait, this is where we came from." Whisper said.
"Indeed, now that you're all pure of your sins, you both are forgiven." the executioner stated, leaping to her place on the giant tusk. "You may take the fan now." she added as the two ponies took off their weight.
Silence was still crying, but her face was not red from the tears anymore, but because of the sheer anger. After raising her head back up, with the salty liquid still pouring from it she screamed up.
"YOU! Why?! Why did you show me all this?!" she shouted, showing her very teeth she was about to break from the sheer power from forcing her jaws at each other.
"It was a part of the ritual. The dead must fate the sins of their past before achieving nirvana." Gaia explained taking the chains off.
"Die..." whispered Silence, slowly turning into her hole filled form, and began shooting wildly at the executioner from behind the bars, from Gaia's huge surprise, with a huge scream. "Die!"
The energy of the weapon blasted the gryphon's limbs and the steel bars into practices.
"Die! Die! Die! Die, die, die, die, DIE!!" Silence kept repeating as she stepped closer and closer towards the dieing creature, not even thinking about lowering her firearm. Even when she was only ashes and almost nothing were seen from the constant dirt and dust, the pegasus kept shooting and shooting. But that was not enough for her, oh no.
When she saw felt this is still not enough, Silence let out the loudest, angriest and probably saddest scream she could ever have done. Her body began to glow, turning all white and eventually shattering, releasing her final alicorn form. The power of her feelings were being focused in her horn. She raised her head high up, where the horn opened into three triangles and began to shoot sparks, with black smoke emerging and gathering at its top. As she lowered her head, she released all the power, all her anger on the place where there was nothing anymore, but small holes in the mossy, burnt ground.
As soon as the bullet of a giant black cloud hit the ground it exploded with such a force their mane felt like being tug by someone. The explosion created an even bigger cloud of black mist, making Whisper cough a little, but as soon as it disappeared only a huge crater, enough for a fully grown pony to bury in were seen in the ground only. Silence, still crying and rosy red collapsed on the ground, shattering her alicorn form into pieces and reverting back to her normal form. She couldn't move at all, and it was not like she even wanted to.
"Are you alright?" asked the ferrymare with shock and confusion reflecting from her face. No answer.
"Quick, we must go!" she said, picking up the fan from the executioner's table, putting the pegasus on her back and leaving as fast as she could.
"Okay..." said Twilight in herself, her mane all messy, her nerves are on the loose as she knew the patrols are all out there... and that they may appear at any moment at her library. She opened the black covered book yet once again, and another one, one from her library, then a third one. She kept looking back and forth, switching randomly between either the books or the door behind.
"It... should be possible." she said pointing at one of her books. "Let's see, there are four kinds of magic: Arcane, Astral, Material and... *gulp* Black. Arcane comes from the very soul, controlled by the mind. Astral magic consists of taking power from a differing source, usually with the help of a medium like a wand, staff or a horn. Material magic is influenced by and used with the help of materials and those only. And finally, Black magic." she explained, ending with a huge gulp again, then taking a huge breath and continuing:
"From the spells of this book, Black magic can be any of the ones above, but is mostly arranged for aggressive reasons, and powered by negative feelings. However..." she added, taking a look at the third book "It can be possibly to fuse Black magic with others, since it shares all categories from above. If my speculations are right, this could bring magic to an entirely new level." she explained to herself with hope shining from her eyes.
"But..." she looked back at the door. "But what if they find it out. Awwwnn!" she smacked her head into her book from frustration. She was shivering and sweating all over the place as she raised her head, peeking back into the forbidden grimoire. Another nervous look back then she began to infuse her horn with magic.
"Okay... just... just a tiny one..." she whispered as her horn began to glow, fading from purple to black and becoming all cold.
"Day 4: Tartarus. I can't stand this anymore. End of entry four."
