Family Ties.

Eleven ponies sat around in the cave, three keeping a close watch on six around a campfire and a dark blue pegasus sat away from the others by the mouth of the cave. Sky watched Reader closely, Reader had a tendency to monolog in her mind, and you could normally tell it was about by her expressions. Sky saw frustration, impatience, anger, but also a trace of sadness and uncertainty.

"You're trying to remember aren’t you?" Sky asked.

"Remember what? I know all that I need to and I am fine with that, unlike some ponies." Reader retorted, asserting her statement to herself just as much as to Sky.

"I can tell you are thinking… about what came before! You are just as curious as I am aren’t you!" Sky said, almost surprised.

"There is nothing to be curious about!" Reader shouted back. "Life was perfect before you went and ruined it all!" Reader stood and started pacing in front of sky, casting wild shadows on the wall of the cave. "We had all that we needed; food, a home, ponies that cared about us, and all we had to do was whatever father asked of us." Reader was on the verge of tears.

"He took care of us! Made us what we are, without him we would be nothing. Why is that not enough for you! Why do you need to know what you where before father helped us? We were happy." Reader barely squeaked out her last sentence before dropping her head and sobbing silently.

"You honestly don't remember do you?" Sky asked softly, as she moved to sit next to reader and placed a reassuring hoof on Reader's shoulder. "Tell me, what is your earliest memory?"

"Uh, when I was ten…. Father came in to wake me up…. He said it was a special day, I was starting school that day…" Reader answered slowly, wiping tears away from her eyes.

"That was seven years ago, and you don't remember anything before that? Did you not sleep that night because you where excited to start school? Did you have friends you where excited to see? Anything?"

" No…but I do remember everything seaming… a bit….off that day. Everything seemed new, like it was my first time being there….but we've lived in that house since I was born….." Readers voice trailed off, as she tried to get a handle on, well, everything.

"I have that same memory; Father, school, the strange feeling that it was my first time being there. But that is not my earliest memory. I can remember back to when I was just a young colt, barely five years old…."

A young pegasus colt ran threw a meadow, her red mane and tail blowing in the wind. She paused at the top of a hill and let the cool wind of the afternoon gently brush across her face. Opening her eyes, she looked down the side of the hill  and gasped; the filed from the bottom of the hill onward was blooming with flowers of all colors. The pegasus called to behind her, and a pegasus the same age ran up to see what all the excitement was about. They both stared at the large expanse of colors running on until it hit the green woods on the other side of the meadow.

"Race you!" One of them yelled as she charged down the hill. "First one to the top of a tree wins!" The two pegasi dashed off, two deep-red spots in the fields of blue, yellow, pink, and white. In two short minuets they reached a tree on the edge of the forest and began running around it, searching for a way to climb up. Not finding a low branch one of the pair opened up her wings a jumped into the air, using her wings to give her a slight boost she barely managed to grab a branch.

"No fair!" The other called up. "You know I can't fly yet"

"How can you know if you don't try!" the other replied

The grounded pegasus frowned up at her sister, who only laughed at her. She closed her eyes and started flapping her tiny wings furiously, harder and harder, faster and faster. Then she heard a snap behind her, she stopped flapping and turned around. There was a tall, skinny, gray pony standing behind her. She looked up at it's face and saw nothing except two large black eyes. She heard a thud as her sister jumped to the ground behind her. Both the young pegusus stood facing the stranger; when it suddenly reached forward towards the filly closest to it. The other charged at it, but stopped when it turned it's gaze upon her. She stood frozen in fear at the large black eyes; no pupils or white space, just black emptiness that looked in and through her without emotion. It turned its attention to the first young pegasus, who stood frozen in the same manner as her sister, it folded the pegasus up in its arms, turned around and walked off into the shadows of the woods. Leaving the other sitting there, watching her sister being carried away; looking into her eyes as they both experienced the same paralyzing fear.

The young pegasus remained in the strangers arms for a long time, her mind frozen by the emotionless blackness in its gaze. She faintly heard doors open and close, she felt needles poking her, then a dull throb at the base of her neck that spread to the rest of her head, where was her sister, she had been standing right in front of her. She woke up, her tired mind slowly crawling back to life. It was her tenth birthday, it felt like just yesterday that she was five, she rolled out of bed and went to her dresser to comb her mane. She heard the door creak open, she looked behind her and saw the silhouette of a stallion standing in the doorway.

"Ah, you're up! Good, it’s a special day today, you start school this afternoon. I'll see you at breakfast."

Twilight looked back towards the campfire, everypony had moved away once Sky and Reader started "talking". Twilight saw them sitting next to each other, not saying anything, when suddenly Reader gasped and stepped back from Sky. Twilight barely heard her say, "That….thing, where did….how… you lost five years of your life!". Twilight stared over at the pegasus and unicorn, confused, she did not remember them saying anything for almost half an hour.

"What is she reacting to, I wonder?" Twilight said to herself.

"Tha' would be Reader doin' what she does best, readin' minds." Strong Hoof said in response.

"What!" Twilight gasped, mouth hanging open in shock to what she just heard.

"It's true, Reader can read minds, and see memories." Matt chimed in. "That's what Father Black gave us, abilities beyond the natural."

"How did he do that? I've never seen any type of magic that could give earth ponies and pesgasus magic of that level."

"Tha' is because it's not magic lassie, it's science!"

"What sort of science, genetic biological manipulation of that level is impossible! It would require changing the genetic makeup of a pony at a sub atomic level!" Twilight's mid was reeling with questions, ideas, theories, and confusion.

"Well I don' know much 'bout the science behind it, all I know is tha' it's amazing!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait. You mean to tell me that you guys have some sort of special powers or something?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Yup, Reader can read minds, Strong Hoof can control gravity, Void over there can do something hard to describe, basically she can destroy stuff. I can change the mass and density of objects, and then there's Sky." Matt's voice became distant, as if he was remembering some long lost idea. "We know her as Stream Wave, she can… influence your thoughts. Tweak your emotions, dive into your subconscious and pull out things you are hiding from others or yourself. She does not see it, she just let's you see. Quite amazing if you ask me."

"Whoa, That. Is. Awesome." Dash gawked.

"How many of you are there?" Twilight asked.

"Countin' Wav- Sky, seven. One o' them had to stay home due to medical issues, the other stayed ta keep 'im company."

"What can they do?"  Dash asked, as excited as a colt in a candy store.

"Well, there's Frost Burn, she can change temperatures in different areas. She's pretty good at it to, she can do some impressive stuff. Then there is Chrome, that's not his real name…Father hasn't named him yet. He is a cross between robot and pony."

"Robot!?" Twilight jumped. "You mean like, mechanically self-operating machine? Theorized by some of the most brilliant minds in Equestria, but deemed impossible because magic is too hard to contain in a charge to power it. And you're friends with one that has been surgically attached to a pony!?" Twilight rambled, on the verge of hysteria.

"Well it wasn't surgery, they grew the mechanical parts on 'im" Strong Hoof said nonchalantly. Twilight sighed deeply, and then passed out.

"Gee, I thought only Rarity did that."

"I beg your pardon Rainbow Dash!"

  ________________________________________

Back at Ponyville, the search for the missing seven ponies had gone on for three days. Big Mac had barely slept, just like the rest of the ponies that volunteered to help. They had scoured the countryside, even sent messengers to the surrounding cities, nothing changed. They were gone. Granny  Smith stood in town square with a desperate, and anxious Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo. The last search party was coming in, and even from a long way off, Apple Bloom could tell they found the same thing as everypony else; nothing. Granny Sat down and pulled the three filly's into a tight, loving hug. They returned the embrace, silently sobbing.

In the library, Big Mac was talking with the search party leaders.

"It's been three days. Where could they have gone?" Mr. Cake asked nopony in particular.

"I don't know, the only explanations left are either colt-napping or… that." Octavia sighed, not wanting to accept the other option as a possibility.

"Well I hate to admit it, but with no evidence of a colt-napping it's the only remaining option." The Mayor reluctantly pointed out. Everypony was silent, letting the reality of the situation set in.

"But Twilight can't be dead!" Spike cried out from his room upstairs. They had found him and Gummy buried underneath some rubble on the second day of the search, he had broken his leg and had a few other minor injuries that kept him bedridden. "Or any of the others for that matter!" Spike continued, with distress in his voice. "Think of all the dangers they have gone through. They beat Nightmare Moon when they barely even knew each other. They bested an Ursa-Minor, a crazy unicorn king from a thousand years ago, and the spirit of chaos himself! I refuse to believe that some mysterious explosion could erase any trace of them! If I could, I would go out and prove it!" Spike then finished under his breath. "Somehow."

Everypony in the room wished they could believe what Spike was saying, but they all knew that what the inspector had said was true. The second day into the search Celestia had sent a unicorn inspector from the CBI (Canterlot Bureau of Investigation). He had scanned the whole area with some sort of detection magic, and reported that all he found was traces of some magic, too weak to tell what type. He spent a whole day searching the site, and the only other thing he could conclusively say was that is what not Twilight's magic. He concluded that some magic fueled explosion had completely eradicated the seven ponies.

Big Mac sighed, walked out of the library, and told the waiting crowd that there was no choice but to believe the inspector; Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Apple Jack, Fluttershy, Pinky Pie, Rarity, and Sky Wander were dead. Apple Bloom broke away from Granny Smith, and ran crying to the crusader clubhouse, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo followed soon after. They spent the night in the clubhouse, they fell asleep huddled together, mourning the loss of their sisters and, in Scootaloo's case, their idols.