Hello Princess Cadance
Quick Silver told me that I should call you by your full name, but I think she may have been pulling my tail.
Oh, this is Point Flare; this letter is for my 'monthly report' as Quick Silver called it, my group and Silver included thought it might be better if I wrote for everyone in the group, so I'll let you know how they're doing too.
Silver's been taking astonishingly good care of us. I spent my first couple of days forgetting that I was being punished for committing treason. Aside from having to stay inside all of the time, our dorms are really comfy, and Silver let's us work wherever we want so long as we clean up. There's good food, even though none of us know where Silver get's it all from, and none of us are willing to ask in case it goes away. She always finds time for all of us, and has been teaching us all sorts of things.
She told me I have an aptitude for Chaos Magic, and when I said, 'like Discord?' she said yes. I'm not exactly sure what that means, for me and just in general. She hasn't told me anything about it yet, and I'm kinda glad. I don't know if I'd be able to keep up.
Misty has recovered from what Quick Silver did to them. It was actually a pretty interesting lecture. Turns out Silver didn't actually rip Misty in half as, and this is how she said it, 'such a thing would have not only been horribly inefficient, but ineffective.' Apparently what I saw was a mixture of an illusion and a mind affecting spell that convinced us the illusion was real, to the point where Misty actually felt the phantom pain of losing her bottom half. Regardless Misty has settled in now that she's got work to do, Misty's the only one of us who's got a talent for Emotion Casting, I'll get to that in a second.
Rip Tide proposed to Grey Skies. I know right? We knew they were super into each other, but they never dated. It was super cute, really. You'll have talk to them about it if you want the details, nonetheless, they're super happy and engaged whenever Silver gives them work, and wow does she. She probably gives Tide and Skies the most work out of anyone.
Hematite is okay, she's been really quiet recently, I think she's just, I think it's sunk in that she's being punished right? We were being black mailed by Stone Cut, but we were still free to come and go as we pleased. She doesn't really like being trapped inside, and Quick Silver always gives us a reason to stay indoors. I can tell Hematite doesn't like Silver even a little bit, and the only reason she doesn't butt heads with her all the time is because she's basically our parole officer. That and Silver is really... prempitively rude
Kayfur has... really taken to this. I'm not sure he even views this as punishment. He's always been the pony out of us who cared the least about the negative effects of dangerous magic, and with Silver showing us where all the pitfalls are... Well, they don't get a long per say, but they talk the most besides me.
Silver's been teaching us a lot. Very little intentionally, mostly only the things she needs us to do. There was a lot of basics she had to teach Misty before she could maintenance the Tac & Co portals, and Hematite and Kayfur got the crash course in advanced Crystal Pony magic. They've been growing crystals for nearly a full week, expanding their mana pools. She's also been slowly teaching Rip and Grey about Elementalism and pegasus magic. Did you know that pegasi could cast certain elemental spells through their wings? The same way unicorns cast with horns? I certainly didn't, but it's definitely possible, I got to watch Rip Tide pull water vapor out of the air with his wing and shoot it forward like a cannon ball.
We're all learning. Me included, I never thought that 'Control' magic was such a small tip of the ice berg when it comes to ways to use magic. Silver has me practice by constantly switching styles, and having me figure out how she's casting. I've seen her cast with something called she quickly called 'applied-psionic-magical-electromagnetism-manipulation'. She's a genius, and I mean that in a technical way. She's no prodigy, but she just knows so much; is an expert in so many fields.
And that's just her, the way she works with technology and applied sciences are beyond me, beyond any of us besides Hematite, and even she can barely keep up. Silver just... the way she thinks, the way she just pulls out random ideas that nobody would have ever come up with? Who could have thought of combining a inverted glow matrix with levitation to make the aura feed back the energy it's trying to radiate to control the mana flow? I've been able to hold levitation indefinitely with that little trick. Every new thing Silver shows us is some revolutionary idea or technology that she just can't be real.
I know it's not really my place to ask Princess... but just who exactly is Quick Silver?
She absolutely doesn't act like a normal pony, and from what I knew already, there's definitely something off about her. Is she... I don't know like, some kind of space pony or something? That's Misty's theory. I don't know myself but I guess that's why I'm asking.
With the way Silver talks and... the way she says things without saying them, I'm not really comfortable asking her directly who she is for real, since it's obvious she's not a pegasus mare from trottingham.
I also wanted to say thank you.
I'm not really good with getting gifts or anything from other ponies, but this... incredible opportunity you've given me is something I'll never forget. You changed my life forever by giving me and my friends a chance so... Thank you.
-Point Flare
Hello Point Flare
I'm glad to hear from you, and get Silver's reports on your punishments. First and foremost, as a ruler, I have to remind you that you are being punished, and would ask that you apply yourself to your work with that understanding. With that out of the way.
Re-reading your personal letter to me, that's a lot to unpack.
I'm happy to hear that you and your friends are doing well under Silver's care, and I have to say that I'm... somehow surprised by your praise of her, both her skill and her care. I'll talk to her about it at some point.
While I'm not too shook by the nature of Silver's intelligence as it was clear that she was a kind of scientist, but it's still a little worrying, and I'll explain why.
To be blunt, Silver is older than me. Older than Celestia and Luna. The only creature I know that might rival her in sheer age and experience is Discord. Silver was around since before Equestria was formally founded and was a practitioner of Dark magic during that era. At some point she was turned to stone and had rested in the palace gardens for a long time. I and Princess Luna caused her release, hoping to reform her like we did Discord...
I'm not sure it didn't work. Silver is headstrong in a way that I don't really understand; a general enigma to me. That being said, I have a task for you.
Watch her. I don't know what her plans for The Empire are, and while I don't believe them to be malicious, they still may very well be. I keep tabs on her myself, but it seems like you may have far more contact. Do me the favour of paying some attention to her behavior and her plans. Just in case. If you could, similarly pay attention to the way she acts, if you could learn anything about her of vague importance, it could easily be one for the history books.
-Cadance
P.S. and she was pulling your tail. Letters addressed to me can remain informal, and you are very welcome, please just do your best to prove my intuition about you and your friends correct.