Silent was walking down the streets of Ponyville, relishing in his first day off since Applebuck season had begun a month ago. Now that Applebuck season was over, he hoped that his days would become less busy in the struggle to keep up with the maintenance of the carts that had so plagued him. Silent was thinking about the history of the Alicorns when he noticed his sister sitting at a café all alone, mindlessly sipping on a drink in front of her.
“Hello, Colgate. Wonderful day out, is it not?” Colgate looked up as she saw her brother in disguise walking up to her.
“Yeah, I suppose so. Although, it’d be a lot nicer if it weren’t for the aerial display that keeps interrupting my quiet time,” Colgate said, looking up at a pair of silhouettes dancing in the sky. Silent followed her gaze upward and noticed that one silhouette was slightly larger than the other.
“Hm… that’s interesting. Have you gotten a good look at them?” Colgate nodded.
“It’s Rainbow Dash and her old friend from Flight School, or so the rumors say. They say that she’s a griffin, which is strange, because I didn’t know that they were in this part of Equestria.” Colgate continued to drink her beverage as soon as she saw that Silent was content with her reply.
“Griffins are really dangerous, and Princess Celestia has put a lot of restrictions on their occupancy of Equestria. Let me know if something happens, okay?”
“I don’t see what a mechanic could do about it, but I suppose I could try to find you.” Colgate smiled and winked at her brother who returned the grin.
“That’s the spirit.” Silent trotted away, heading toward the library to see what he could find out more about the ancient wars. The thought of a never-before-heard-of Alicorn was sticking fast to his mind, and he was determined to find some hints in the history books.
Just as Silent reached the doors of the Ponyville Library, he saw the door open slowly and a dejected pink Earth Pony walk out. He watched in confusion as the typically joyous Pinkie Pie walked slowly toward the park. He shrugged and turned to go into the library.
“Hello. Is there any way I can be of assistance to you?” Silent looked to his right as he entered through the door and noticed Twilight Sparkle at a reading stand, facing him and smiling.
“Actually, yes. Where might the history books be? More specifically, ancient history. Before Princess Luna’s banishment.”
“Oh, that would be right in the next room, everything in there is history and geography, ordered chronologically. Although, you don’t seem to be the kind of pony that would be interested in history books.” Silent simply smiled at the librarian’s observation.
“I’m doing a little bit of research for relaxation. I realize that’s typically only a unicorn thing, but I hope you’ll understand.”
“I was actually talking about how you’re a mechanic, and every mechanic I’ve ever known never held much interest in ancient history.” Silent blushed slightly in embarrassment and quickly walked into the other room, thanking Twilight for her assistance.
It wasn’t long before Silent found a book covering the ancient days of ponies, even before written language was established. Silent looked around, making sure that nopony was in the room with him, and as soon as he saw that it was clear, he made his horn reappear and touched it to the book. Using his magic, he scanned for anything detailing Alicorns. As soon as he found the page, he hid his horn and began to read. His spirits fell as it only detailed the rise of Celestia and Luna, yet he told himself to keep reading. As he read, he discovered that the history books had been altered, and that although the book detailed the War of Equestria and the formation of the realms, no other Alicorns were mentioned.
Main Street. By the café. Come quickly.
Silent jumped at the sudden voice in his head, immediately recognizing it as his sister’s. In one quick flash, he had changed back into his original unicorn form, put the book back on the shelf, and disappeared from the library.
Silent appeared by the café and began to look around him. Everywhere he looked, he could see ponies discussing angrily at one another. He ran up to Colgate who was standing by herself.
“I’m impressed. You actually came in your form. You’re going to need it, though. Seems like you were right about the griffin. A few minutes ago she scared poor Fluttershy, just for walking in her way.” Colgate turned to Silent, who was scowling, no doubt thinking about what to do next.
“Thank you, sister. I will see what I can find out about this griffin. Any idea where she went?”
“No, however, I do know that Pinkie Pie is throwing her a party later at Sugarcube Corner. Maybe you ought to go check there?”
“Will do. Thank you, Colgate. You’ve done Equestria a great service.” Silent briefly hugged his little sister before trotting off to Sugarcube Corner.
After turning invisible and sneaking into the local bakery, he noticed a small gathering of ponies. Among them were the Elements of Harmony. He walked over to a corner and began to observe the scene, making note of every single pony in the room. He was surprised to see his sister enter with Carrot Top, wondering why she was here. Then he looked to the door and saw that the guest of honor had arrived. He noted that although she was bigger than the average pony, she was still kind of small for a Griffin.
“Great,” Silent thought to himself, “That means she’s probably hot-tempered in order to try to compensate for her lack of size.”
Silent sat in his corner and watched as the party progressed. He looked around and noticed that there were many pranks that were just waiting for somepony to stumble upon. Soon enough, the griffin fell for a prank. Silent noticed her lose her cool a little bit, but with a griffin of her psyche it was not surprising. What was surprising was what happened next. Silent could only watch as out of some invisible hoof guided the griffin to stumble upon every single prank in the room in sequence.
Silent rose quickly as the griffin began to roar in anger, prepared to do what he had to do to defend the ponies. However, he watched as the griffin simply turned to leave, calling toward Rainbow Dash. Silent watched in awe as the cyan Pegasus refused to leave with her old friend, sticking with her newer friends. He watched as the griffin stormed out of the room in anger and Silent knew that he had to act fast if he were to catch the angry griffin.
Silent rushed outside, looking around to see which direction the griffin went, and after locating her, he began to feel his horn glow and remembered what Luna had taught him. He could feel his body surging with magic and as some of his body transformed into the pure energy, he could feel himself being lifted up into a cloud-like state. After the transformation was complete, however, he couldn’t figure out how to move. Silent floated in place for a few seconds as it occurred to him that all he needed to do was will himself to move. After his revelation, it took no time at all before he was speeding after the retreating griffin.
When he caught up to her, Silent knew it was a matter of time before she had to land to rest, and to his surprise, it took no energy to move around in his current state. For the first time in his adult life, he felt free. Silent was no longer bound by the laws of physics, and the comfort of the magic field was almost too good to let go of. Silent quickly caught himself as he noticed that the runaway griffin had started to slow down and descend.
It was several minutes before the griffin finally stopped in an opening in a wooded area to rest up before she continued on her journey to who knows where. Silent knew that he had to do what he came to do, and quickly. The threat must be neutralized. Silent went out of sight of the griffin and changed back into his physical form. He saw a look of fright on the griffin as he stepped out into the opening that she had landed in.
“What are you doing here? Don’t you know not to startle a griffin? Do you have a death wish or something? Now get lost!” Silent smirked as he started to walk circles around the griffin.
“Oh, no, I’m afraid I didn’t come all this way just to walk away, Gilda. You see, I’ve been following you since your little episode in Ponyville. Must be tough losing the only friend you had left. Yet, you seemed to shrug it off like she meant nothing to you.” Silent had no idea if Rainbow was Gilda’s only friend, but he figured it was a just assumption.
“Hmph. Like that loser was my only friend. I just kept hanging out with her so she didn’t feel so lonely. I got tons of friends back home, tons of griffin friends who would love to feast on some punk like you.” Gilda stood up and started gazing between her claws and Silent.
“Is that right? You must come from some rural part of the mountains. All the griffin cities I know of, and trust me, there’s a lot of them, are too civilized to even think about eating a pony, or anything that can talk as they do. I don’t feel threatened by you, Gilda, so any attempts at threatening will fail miserably. However, you have reason to fear me, which is why I’m offering you a deal.”
“Oh yeah? And what makes you think I’d make a deal with some smug little unicorn like you?” Silent smiled and chuckled audibly.
“I’m glad you asked that, Gilda. You see, I’m the Commander of the Lunar Task Force, including the department of Homeland Security. I was sent to protect the Elements of Harmony, the very ponies that just earlier today you had a bit of an episode with. I’m here to make sure you don’t come back to threaten them, or any of Equestria for that matter. I can let you go back home, with a warning. However, should you choose to decline my offer, or if I hear you have caused trouble in some other part of the kingdom, then I shall have no choice but to hunt you down and administer the proper punishment. And believe me, you won’t like it. So, what do you say?” Silent held his hoof out to make the gesture of an agreement. Gilda eyed his outstretched hoof for a moment before she spoke.
“I don’t believe you have any power to do such a thing, so I’m going to have to say no. In fact, now that you mention it, I think I’m going to go back to Ponyville and give those annoying dweebs a piece of my mind.” Gilda spread her wings, laughing maniacally and turned toward Ponyville.
Silent’s horn began to glow, and suddenly Gilda was grounded again. Her wings soon became tied to her body by means of a few of the vines hanging from the trees. She grunted as Silent threw her against a tree and tied her up, restraining her from moving any limb of her body.
“I’m afraid that crosses the line, Gilda. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to call in some back up. I’m afraid I won’t be able to transport you myself all the way to Canterlot.” Silent stepped back and his horn briefly shone as he sent a signal toward the direction of the mountain city.
It was about an hour before the special unit squad arrived on the scene. They looked in awe as a dark blue unicorn was sitting comfortably under a shade tree while an enraged griffin thrashed around in her makeshift restraints. The squad quickly sedated the griffin and placed her into a cage that they had brought for the occasion.
“Bout time you guys showed up,” Silent said as he walked up to the leader of the squad, “you guys take the scenic route or something?”
“No sir,” the sergeant replied, “we hurried here as soon as we could. We had to find a cage big enough for a griffin, although I don’t think you and I have met before.”
“Indeed we haven’t. What’s your name, soldier?”
“Rocky Spirit, Sergeant. Equestrian Royal Task Force, Flare Company. And you, sir?”
“Ah, Flare Company. You guys have quite the reputation. As for me, I am Silent, Commander of the Lunar Task Force.”
“It’s an honor, sir. Shall we get moving? It is nigh 3 hours until sundown, and the road is still long from here to Canterlot. Our prisoner will wake up soon, and we don’t want to be stopped when she does.” Silent nodded and the Sergeant gave the order for his men to start moving the cage.
It was right as the sun had set that the troupe had entered the Canterlot Castle courtyard. Gilda had stopped yelling and gave up about 2 hours into the walk, but she was still fresh on everypony’s nerves. Silent felt sorry for those who had to pull the cage, as during the early stages of the trip the griffin had tried slamming into the sides to try and escape.
The Canterlot Guard met Silent and the squad halfway up the path. After the squad handed the cage over to the guard, Silent dismissed them and they walked back to their barracks. Silent filled in the guards who were pulling the cage and instructed them to take the prisoner to the dungeons for imprisonment.
“One thing I would like to know, where is Captain Armor? I need to speak with him about the griffin.”
“He is currently on leave, and won’t be back for a couple of days. In the meantime, you will have to speak with Bull. He’s the First Lieutenant and the interim Captain of the Guard. He’ll be in the Captain’s office until 23:00 until he retires for the night.” Silent nodded and thanked the guard for his help.
Silent arrived at the door of the Captain’s office to find it wide open. He looked inside and saw Bull sitting at the desk filling out some paperwork. Silent knocked on the door and entered when he got the go-ahead wave from the busy First Lieutenant.
“I’m very busy, soldier, so if you could hurry up and say what’s on your-” Bull stopped mid-sentence when he looked up at who he was talking to. “Sorry, sir. I didn’t realize it was you. I wasn’t expecting somebody of your stature at this time of the evening. What can I do for you?”
Silent chuckled. “I have come here to inform you of your newest prisoner. I expect them to be taken care of in traditional Equestrian hospitality, however I must warn you: the prisoner is very hostile and must be treated with maximum security. One of the Princesses will try her based on my report of her actions, but in the meantime she is your responsibility. Do not give her opportunity to escape. Is this clear?” Bull nodded. “Good. Then I will expect you to relay this to Captain Armor upon his return. Now I must leave, but remember, it’s imperative that you don’t give the griffin even the slightest of breaks. I suppose you’re named “Bull” for a reason, so I’ll just let you do what you do with unruly prisoners.” Bull saluted as Silent exited the office.
Silent was walking down the main corridor when a night guard approached him. “Sir, Princess Luna has requested your presence in her office. I have been sent to fetch you.”
“Thank you. Lead on, then.” Silent followed the Pegasus guard to Luna’s office. When they arrived, the guard motioned for Silent to go on in while the guard stood at attention in front of the door. As Silent walked in, Luna looked up at him and greeted him with a smile.
“We were not expecting you to make such a visit to Canterlot. We are happy, however, that you decided to. We are curious as to what brought you here.”
“I come here on official business, there was a runaway from Ponyville who had threatened certain members of the Elements of Harmony and it was my duty to give chase and incarcerate her.
“We see. After we are done here, you will need to go to Our sister for a full report. Do you know why We called you here?” Silent shook his head. “We have summoned you here because We have a little surprise for you. In your new assignment, you will need to leave on a moment’s notice, like this incident has proven. However, your business cannot suffer you to be gone on random days, whenever something happens. We have been thinking upon how to fix such a problem. What We have come up with is something, radical. Thunder, you can come in now.” Luna looked toward the door. Silent turned to see the new pony to the conversation and gasped when he saw Caramel standing before him.
“What… What is this, Princess?” Silent swiftly turned to face the Princess, his face showing ultimate confusion.
“This is Thunder Flash. He has been learning how to change forms for a few years now, following in your footsteps to some degree as part of Celestia’s Royal Guard. If you will allow him, he just needs one more thing to be able to replace you permanently as Caramel. He has volunteered for this job, knowing all the risks.”
“I… I understand. He needs my memories, doesn’t he? So that he may copy Caramel’s personality to a ‘t’?” Luna nodded. “And Thunder, you are aware that you must lose all memory of your old self until your job be done?” Thunder nodded. “Very well. Remove your memories into this,” Silent gave Thunder a large vial which had been sitting on Luna’s desk, “and I will give you Caramel’s memories.” Silent walked up to the new Earth Pony and touched Caramel’s forehead with his horn. Caramel’s eyes opened wide as years of memories rushed into his brain. As more and more information slammed its way into his mind, he began to quiver. Silent finished off the procedure, filling his mind with the last of the memories. As soon as Silent removed his horn from the Earth Pony, Caramel let out a sigh and collapsed on the floor.
Luna called to one of her guards to take Caramel to the infirmary. As he was carted away, Luna turned to Silent.
“I have a quick question, Princess,” Luna nodded in confirmation, waving Silent to proceed, “Well, I’ve noticed that you haven’t been using the older dialect much, and I was wondering why that was.”
“Our dear Sister has set us up with shock therapy. Every time We attempt to use the older dialect, We get shocked. It has been very effective in making us speak in the common tongue.”
Silent and the Princess sat for a couple of minutes in silence, Silent reading over his report and Luna writing in a large book. Luna was the first to break the silence.
“We are sorry that you will no longer be able to become Caramel. We realize that you have a special connection to him. However, with your job come sacrifices that you must make in order to keep Equestria safe. Is there anything We can do for you?”
“Well, I could do with a bit of advice. I’ve never really had to give Princess Celestia a report like this. Anything I should avoid or include in my report?”
Luna smiled and let out a chuckle. “Now that you mention it, it wouldn’t hurt to include something about cake or bananas.”