//------------------------------//
// Intermission 3 
// Story: White Curse 
// by Jumpitydude 
//------------------------------//

It was a half an hour from the main event of the festival. The big concert At that point, most of the creatures had left for the big stage, only leaving six friends in the karaoke and dance building.

Gallus patted Silver on the back. "That was amazing, Silver."

Smolder leaned back in her chair. "You just got up there and sang your heart out. I wouldn't be shocked if you got asked to perform on the big stage."

Yona downed the last of her water. "Silver sure she want to pursue dance and not sing?"

Silver shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe I will aim to be a singer. Though I still can't believe auntie did that."

Ocellus giggled. "Yeah, that was pretty surprising. "Let me show you how to dance." And she sure did."

Sandbar looked at the stage. "It's always nice to see royalty acting casual."

Gallus smirked. "You say that like we don't live next to Princess Twilight and see her every day."

Sandbar blushed. "Well, other royalty."

Smolder continued to jab at Sandbar. "Doesn't Equestria have some of the most chill royalty?"

Yona scratched her head. "Luna seem very job focused."

Ocellus looked at the Yak in concern. "How would you know that?"

Silver placed her claw on Yona's head. "Do you need help?"

Sandbar coughed and got out of his seat. "Anyway, we should probably head out to the main stage. I know I don't want to miss the big show."

Sandbar's friends followed him to the door, and he put his hoof to it.

"You're welcome."

They all paused, then turned towards the stage, where a lone figure stood.

"Gold Strike."

The on-stage figure chuckled. "You know what I'm referring to, right?"

Yona let out a low growl. "You kill E.E.A."

He put his leg to his chest. "Moi? I thought we went over this. I'm no killer."

Ocellus stepped back. "Then how did you deal with them?"

He let out a deep chuckle. "Let's just say I convinced... someone else that it was in their best interest to end the E.E.A."

Silver summoned her bow. "How's that any different from killing them yourself?"

"Why are you worried about that? I'm helping you, aren't I?" He spoke with a dishonest tone.

Gallus got ready for a fight. "I'm guessing we aren't your only reason, right? Thunder Lock?"

The figure tilted his head. "Thunder Lock? Who's that?"

"Then how did he know my name? I never met him before then."

"Oh? So you caught my slip-up?" Suddenly, electricity sparked around him, and he had a form; A yellow stallion.

Smolder was taken aback. "Wait, that was you?"

"But of course. I'm not going to let someone else take this kind of power. Let's me influence who takes my place afterward, too. Don't want another Neighsay stepping in, now do we?"

Silver tsked. "You're getting rather reckless, flaunting your power like this."

"Who are you to call me reckless. Weren't you one of the two that nearly got your friends killed? Who nearly let Fluttershy run rampant?"

Silver's eyes shifted to the side. His words clearly hurt her.

"Besides," Ocellus spoke up, "How do we out him without revealing our own identities? He probably thought of that first."

Smolder raised an eyebrow. "Why don't we just say, 'Hey, we met a terrorist!'"

"'Terrorist? How did you get away from him? Why was he talking to you? Please step this way, we have some questions for you.'" Gold Strike chuckled. "Sorry, kiddies, but you'll have to keep quiet about me a while yet."

Sandbar smirked. "So you don't want Luna to know either?"

The older creature cringed, then hung his head, visibly upset. "Low blow, Blitz. Low blow."

"Blitz?" Ocellus noted under her breath.

"How do you even know about that?"

Sandbar flipped his hair. "I looked for your name a bit. Found a few books that mentioned something about you and her being close."

Gold Strike let out an annoyed sound. "Regardless, it would be best if you six simply avoid talking to anyone you really shouldn't about it. Though that may include some creatures you don't realize."

Sandbar was getting frustrated with the creature's vagueness. "What's that mean?"

"You'll see." With that, the stallion shaped creature suddenly turned into electricity and vanished into the microphone.

The six friends shared a look. What did he mean?

"Hey!"

The friends looked at the doorway, where Gilded Lily was standing.

"Why are you still here? The concert is starting soon."

Smolder chuckled a little. "We were just talking about some personal things. We'll be right there."

Lily looked at Smolder, then glanced at Silver, before smiling. "Alright. Whatever you say."

The friends looked at each other. Yona spoke up first. "Right. Let's get going."

"Before we do." Gallus looked at Silver. "You might want to put that away. Don't want to scare anyone."

"What? Oh, right!" Silver returned her bow to her body, then followed her friends out. Until something clicked. "Wait a second..."





Serotonin: Moderate-low. Consistent with those that are awake at such a late hour.
Dopamine: Moderate-low. They seemed to be shutting out the world around them.
Norepinephrine: Very low. They weren't worried at all.

Silver was starting to adapt to regularly using her powers to read other's emotions that way. She agreed with her friends not to use their connection except to talk, but she did get plenty of practice with her powers on them. It was tricky to remember which chemical did what, but she figured it out (with Ocellus' help).

Serotonin is the low emotion chemical, controlling sleep, depression, and inhibition.
Dopamine is the high emotion chemical, controlling behavior, emotion, and cognition.
Norepinephrine is the panic chemical, controlling the fight-or-flight instinct.

Silver was practicing with controlling these chemicals with Gallus (in private, just in case she makes a certain combination by accident), but she had no intent to do that in this situation. She needed information, and the best way to do that was to make sure the filly she was talking to was comfortable with her. No changing those chemicals. Only reading.

Silver slowly approached Lily as to avoid scaring the filly. The unicorn had her eye shoved into the telescope, so she probably didn't expect Silver to be there. At least, that's what Silver thought before seeing another telescope set up.

"Do you need something, Ocellus?"

Silver locked up. Lily got it wrong, but-

"Silverstream, then."

"How did you know?"

Lily turned around, her dopamine going up. "You two are the only ones that would approach me tonight. Would you like to look at the stars with me?"

"I'd like to ask you some questions, first."

Lily looked up at Canterlot. "Yesterday's festival was pretty good. Lots of things to buy. Plenty of games to play. So much socialization. The concert." Lily then turned back to Silver. "Though I'm guessing you didn't go around flaunting that bow of yours the whole time."

"Did you tell anyone?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

Lily's dopamine went up again. "Did you want me to?"

"Want you to or not, I would have reported someone having a bow in hand right away. Why didn't you report me?"

Lily fell silent, but Silver felt her norepinephrine going up a bit. There was only one logical reason Silver could think of for Lily to have seen that, but not tell anyone.

"You know, don't you?"

"Know what?" Lily's voice was flat, but she couldn't deny her body's natural reactions to panic.

"Don't be afraid. I just want to know how much I can trust you."

Her norepinephrine went down a little bit. "... You can trust me."

"What do you know? I won't tell anyone. I promise."

Lily looked away. Her serotonin went up. "What am I supposed to say? It's hard to talk about my situation."

"Then don't. Actually." Silver went over to Lily and hugged her. "Don't say anything else. I just needed to know if I could trust you. We can leave the details for later, if ever."

Lily wrapped her hooves around Silver, her chemical levels returning to how they were before they started talking. "Thank you. I feel selfish since you're in a worse spot than I am, but we can help each other through this."

"We all can."

The two girls broke their embrace and looked at the others as they approached.

Gallus went up to Silver and put a claw on her shoulder. "Did you think you could slip off without us noticing?"

Lily looked over at her telescopes. "I didn't plan for this many creatures."

"That's alright." Smolder smacked the bag on Yona's back. "We thought of that."

Lily looked at them for a second, then smiled. "So, we all trust each other, right?"

Sandbar nodded. "Right."

After that, the seven of them wasted the night gazing at stars. Until Starlight caught them and made them go to bed.