//------------------------------// // Interlude - Loose Ends // Story: Guardian of Legends - Unity // by The Hero of Harmony //------------------------------// Two days have passed since the wedding, and after the whole incident with the changelings invading, things began to settle back down for Canterlot as ponies resumed daily lives, but even then many couldn’t stop raving about the wedding and how exciting it all turned out in the end. Silver was visiting Golden’s grave, wanting to do so before he heads back to Ponyville with Twilight and the others, since Twilight wanted to stay in Canterlot to visit her parents after so long and while Silver could’ve went back to Ponyville at anytime, he figured he’d wait for Twilight and Spike and go back with them. He wished they could stay a bit longer, but he knows the girls have to get back home and resume their daily lives. The young stallion sat there, beside the grave, looking out over Canterlot with a soft grin. “Yeah mom, you wouldn’t believe how crazy things got. From discovering that the changeling queen was posing as Cadence, to the invasion, and then the wedding proper, no doubt you would’ve been worried for me. And I can’t say I blame you, after having found the real Cadence and Twilight underneath Canterlot, and having to battle Chrysalis alongside the princesses in what I thought was the most epic battle that somepony with the most wild imagination can think up, the day was saved in the end, and Cadence and Shining Armor were able to have their perfect day...” Silver said aloud. “Although, now it is likely going to be a rough afternoon... The girls all saw me using my magic... Magic I have been trying to keep secret for nearly a year and a half now.” He sighs. He rubs the back of his head, knowing the moment he heads back, Twilight and the others will be waiting for him... And wanting an explanation from him. “Well, I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. I’m just surprised that I was able to get away from keeping this whole thing hidden up until now. They do deserve to know, just as Crimson told me in my dream... Though, knowing Twilight and her love for research and always wanting to learn more on magic, she will be on my case about this for weeks on end. Just hope she gets why I’m going to stick by with what I have to tell them and they just move on...” He just looks up at the sky, the calm and gentle breeze blowing past him on the lonely hill. Eventually he got up. “Well, I better go face the music then. I know you would understand me if I was telling you this face to face, but I just really hope they accept my reasoning.” Silver muttered as he looks down at the grave. “I better get going. I’ll be sure to come visit again the next chance I get when visiting Canterlot. Take care... I love you.” He said, with a sad smile. He kissed his hoof as he gently taps the gravestone and begins his trek down, wanting to take his time. He really needed as much time as he can get to explain to the girls his secret he has kept only hidden, with Celestia and Luna being the only two that were aware. “...Give me strength for this.” He said to himself, as he walked down the street. He reached his residence five minutes later, but finds a small note on his door. Recognizing the hornwriting, it was no mistaking that it was Twilight who left the note there. He read it and just only said, plain as day: Palace. Now. She didn’t even leave her name at the end. He could only chuckle, considering how serious Twilight is in writing, but was also apprehensive because he has been hiding a secret for almost a year and a half now, and it is a doozy of a secret. He just sighed, taking the note off the door, placing it inside his cloak and heads to the palace, where Twilight, and no doubt the others, were waiting for him. ”Better get this over with.” He thought. Silver made his way into the throne room, after being let in by the guard, where he was expected to meet with Twilight and the group, as well as the Princesses who mostly were going to help explain the whole ordeal with him, considering they were the only two to know about Silver’s secret for the longest time. While he waited, he looked at one of the windows and saw a new one that he was sure he didn’t see yet. It was a pink window that depicted Cadence and Shining Armor as the main centerpiece, posing in the shape of a heart, symbolizing their love as they within a circle with some sparkles with Canterlot located beneath them. Around them, Twilight and the girls with their respective Element symbol appearing to help the recent newly webs remove the changeling threat from the city. And across from that, he saw a pure white windows depicting Celestia and Luna instead of Nightmare Moon donned in their armor and weapons, and Silver in center, with his blade and holding a his staff toward a group of changelings with Chrysalis in the center as it showed the epic moment when they were locked in a magic duel that the Princesses and aspiring guardian won, showing Celestia and Luna firing their respective magic, with Silver’s magic being shown with a gout of what looked like fire, ice crystals, and thunderbolts around the mega spell. Silver couldn’t help be grin, as he found this to be, what he thought, was his crowning achievement. ”It certainly is one of your greater achievements.” Luna’s voice echoed behind him. Silver, however, didn’t jump or flinch by her sudden appearance, merely his ears twitched as he continued looking at the window. “Yeah, though it is a shame Nightmare Moon wasn't depicted, considering she was the one helping.” Silver pointed out. “Indeed, however since not many of our subjects are aware of our reunion, it would only have caused more panic than what was needed, considering the situation we were all in.” Luna replied. “Besides, she is alright with this as she is not ready to grace the rest of our subjects yet.” She added. Silver nods. “I guess. But still, despite all that went on, it was certainly a rush, likely for both you and Princess Celestia.” Silver chuckled. Luna chuckled as well. “Even after all this time, she still had her way of handling herself when combating in close quarters. And here I thought I wouldn’t have been rusty after lack of training. After all, we wish to try to bring back the peace without resorting to violence, but considering we were invaded, that was thrown out the window. I knew I may have not been able to handle the queen as I was, but with Nightmare Moon’s power, and bringing a temporary eclipse, I was able to increase our magic more, thus giving us an edge in battle.” “Nice touch with the eclipse by the way. It really made a change in the mood of the battle.” Silver smirked. Luna giggled. “Thank you dear Silver, I suppose it did.” Luna replied. The two continued to talk, until they were interrupted by the sound of the throne room doors opening. Twilight and the group entered, as they talked amongst themselves, but upon seeing Silver and Luna they are stopped and galloped over. “Either I was early or you six were late.” Silver said with a smirk. Rolling their eyes, they laughed. It was then a flash appeared behind Silver, and they saw Celestia appear on her throne. Luna then moves to join her sister as they both look down at the group. “It seems all of you are here now. We can begin.” Celestia said calmly, as she looks down at Silver. “Before we do, I just wanted to say thank you all for doing your part in helping stop the changeling invasion.” She said with a smile. They all grinned, cheering amongst themselves. “Despite the odds you girls faced, you were successful in obtaining the Elements of Harmony from Canterlot Tower, mostly in part of Princess Cadence’s own guard being able to assist and escorting you to the tower. As you can see...” Celestia looked to the pink stained glass window. “Because of your strong bond and friendship, it was able to amplify Cadence and Shining Armor’s love and create a more powerful spell that was able to rid all the changelings from Canterlot. Once more, thank you all.” Celestia and Luna bow their heads down. The group just took it all in with stride. “Well we couldn’t just let those creeps run amok and eventually spread throughout Equestria now, could we?” Rainbow smirked. “Besides, had we listened to Twilight and took her seriously when she saw the signs of how Princess Cadence was acting, we could’ve done something sooner... Instead, we were so caught up with the planning of the wedding, we just didn’t see clearly.” Rarity frowned. Twilight gave her friends a sad smile. “Girls, I already said I forgive you. I wasn’t directing my anger at you girls personally, it was toward Chrysalis who fooled everypony.” “We know that Twi. But, we should’ve stuck by you when you needed us most, like when you were so worried and nearly gone crazy for not being able to write to Princess Celestia your friendship report.” Applejack replied. She shudders at the memory. She knew she wanted to get their attention and solve a friendship problem, but doing the ‘Want It, Need It’ spell was a bit too much. “And you were forgiven in that regard by me, Twilight.” Celestia said softly. “You all have done well in reporting me your findings when it comes to friendship, even by other ponies who helped discovered them. I am sure as time goes on, we will all be able to reflect back to these lessons when a buffer comes between you all...” She added. They all grinned. “Now then, onto the main topic at hoof.” Luna spoke up. Silver sighed. He knew it was time. “No doubt, most of the residence in Canterlot all witnessed the rather...” Luna then smirked. “...epic, moment in the invasion, involving our sister and I, as well as young Silver.” The girls then knew what she was referring to. “You mean that awesome magic battle that you three had against several changelings and the queen in the courtyard to which you totally won against?” Rainbow asked, grinning brightly. They nod, chuckling. “The same. And the main star of this would be Silver. As you all saw, Silver was capable of using magic, but not just normal magic. This type of magic he was wielding is something from beyond Equestria, as one other individual in Equestria’s history was able to use this powerful form of magic, that helped me and my sister take down a more evil foe.” Celestia explained. “Magic from... beyond Equestria? You mean like, not of this world sort of beyond Princess?” Twilight piped. The two princesses nod, with Luna speaking up. “Indeed. There is one part of Equestrian history that isn’t known by many today, as it was something me and my sister wished to keep from the history books, mostly at the request of that individual that helped us. We honored their wishes, and made sure that nopony chronicled the event that occurred several years before my transformation into Nightmare Moon.” “You see, that individual that helped us in the past is the reason Silver is capable of doing feats that no regular earth pony can do. They are both connected by one thing in particular...” Celestia added. Celestia looked to the window again, looking at mostly Twilight and her friends surrounding Cadence and Shining Armor. Twilight caught this and saw what she was talking about. “The Elements of Harmony?” She asked. “Yes. One thing that many don’t know, aside from us, is that while there was always six Elements that represented friendship, there always circulated myths about other Elements that could have existed but were only dismissed as that: just myths. However, that isn’t the case...” “Wait, you mean to say that the reason Silver is able to do what he can... Is because he is also a Bearer of the Elements too?” Twilight asked, arching a brow. “Mm-hmm. More specifically, he is tied to the mythical 7th Element of Harmony, which was brought into existence after our ‘mutual friend’ helped us rid the evil that nearly consumed not just Equestria, but the world as well. That Element came to be known as the Element of Unity.” Celestia explained. “...” Silver was just silent as they talked. “The Element of... Unity?” The girls asked together, confused. “Unity is often referred to bring all together as one. He was able to stall for time when Nightmare Moon returned and battled her for you six until the Elements could be restored to what they were now. Not only that, he also possess qualities that represent each of your Elements as he is shown to hold each in balance. He is a kind and gentle soul who is willing to help others as well as display some form of generous deeds, loyal to those close to him, humble and honest, capable of having a bit of sense of humor and make others laugh, and of course, possessing powerful magic he is still trying to learn to control.” Celestia elaborated. The girls just listened in awe. “But Princess, if Silver is also like us being a bearer of the Elements, where is his Element at?” Fluttershy asked quietly. Silver just chuckles. “Think about it, what is the one thing that I am almost never without?” Silver asked. The girls look at each other and pondered for a bit. He gave them a subtle hint, as he raises his left hoof where his mother’s ring was, as he rubbed the back of his head. Twilight noticed this and how he was being at that moment. She gasped. “Your mother’s ring! You almost never take it off because of how important it is to you. You mean to say that her ring... Is also the Element of Unity?” Twilight asked. “It isn’t so much the ring... But more of the gemstone in the ring. I never knew about it, until after we defeated Discord. You six never noticed but when you were using the Elements on him, my ring literally shook and flew off my hoof and floated alongside you six, and its gemstone went from red to green, and it’s magic combined with yours and was able to seal Discord more soundly. After that, it came back to me and went back around the hoof.” Silver explained. “And it did again, while you six were helping Cadence and Shining with powering their love, after we weakened Chrysalis.” He added. “It came to a surprise to us as well. Silver talked to me about his ring doing that, and it does possess magic on par with the Elements, but only seems to activate when it needs to. Other than that, it always remains dormant.” Celestia spoke up. “...So that is what you two were talking about after we defeated Discord! You mean you two knew about all of this? Why keep this a secret at all, especially the part where Silver... Hello? CAN USE MAGIC THAT IS LIKELY NOT EVEN OF THIS WORLD?” Twilight questioned strongly. “...That’s why.” Silver replied simply. Twilight then blinked, before looking at him confused. “Pardon?” She asked. “That is why. Twilight, we’ve been friends for a long time, and I know that studying magic is something that you always will enjoy doing no matter what. If I was to have told you that I could use powerful and dangerous magic that has origins not of this world, you would likely be questioning me about it non-stop.” He asked. “Well of course I would! I mean, Silver, you are probably the first ever earth pony that is able to do what most highly-skilled unicorns, or even the Princesses, could do with ease! Why wouldn’t I want to know more about this magic? I mean, just think about how many unicorns could learn from this and try to replicate it! It could change the world in the magic society!!” Twilight yelled, surprised. “That isn’t going to be possible my dear student.” Celestia said plainly. “Huh? What do you mean? If anypony could do what Silver can do, you could certainly do it!” Twilight replied in shock. “We know, me and Luna attempted to try this magic for ourselves centuries ago when our friend was here... We tried to do a simple fire and healing spell, which according to our friend were two of the most basic spells in his schools of magic, but we were unable perform them. We ended up exhausting nearly all of our magic, for a spell that was the easiest for Silver to pull off.” Celestia explained. This shocked the ponies, bar Silver and Luna. “WHAT?!” The shouted in unison. “It is true. The magic Silver is capable of doing is vastly different from the magic that exists here. Anypony attempting to try to do the spells Silver can do would only end up exhausting their magic reserves to the point of heavy fatigue. As you saw with Silver, even after a year and a half of training this magic, he exhausted himself when he used the third tier of magic in conjunction with the second tier magic to have an edge against the queen and the changelings.” Luna explained. “A YEAR AND A HALF?! Silver has been at this for nearly two years and didn’t say a thing??” Twilight freaked out. “Bookie! Did you not just hear why I didn’t mention this to you initially? Yes, I have been learning these spells for almost two years and I only just mastered doing most of the magic in the first two tiers and was in the process of learning tier three magic. I knew the risks of doing spells that I haven’t mastered yet, but I had no other option as I lucked out and was able to bring down the queen, and literally disintegrate several of the changelings into nothing.” The room goes silent for a moment. “...Besides, you don’t need to know these spells Twilight. You are already the embodiment of magic itself, already an amazing unicorn and can do more than the standard unicorn could do.” He then said softly. Twilight looked away, giving a small blush out of bashfulness. “Rainbow has her incredible speed, Pinkie has her way of making ponies laugh and has her unpredictable nature, AJ has her ways of seeing if a pony is lying or not and her own physical prowess, Rarity has her generous nature and her own methods of using her magic, and Fluttershy is kind and gentle to be able to solve issues without resorting to violence, as well as understanding animals.” The girls just look around, blushing a bit from their qualities. “You all have your own unique aspects, and ways of solving problems be it friendship based or not. I’m half a unicorn, but more earth pony by heart, so I would rely on my own strength first and resort to my magic if necessary since I know the danger it can pose on not just others, but to myself if I am not careful.” Silver added. “So please Twilight. Don’t pressure me into explaining more as to why you or anypony else can't do what I can do. It is better to accept that I can do this and just move on...” “But... Silver you are...” Twilight defended but was cut off when he stared at her, pleadingly. She then sighs. “You can be so stubborn, you know...?” She said, giving a sad smirk. He chuckles. “We earth ponies are like that. What can you do?” He shrugs. “...Alright, I can learn to cope without pestering you about all this...” Twilight replied. “Thanks Twilight.” Silver said, patting her shoulder. The princesses just smiled. “I think this is a good place to leave things off now, hmm?” Celestia asked. The all nodded. “Well, I can say that this little private meeting is now adjourned.” Celestia lightly stomped her hoof. With that, the group decide to head out and enjoy the rest of the day in Canterlot, hanging out together and just enjoy the peace that returned. The next day, they were all aboard the train, heading back to Ponyville, as the girls were just happy to finally head home and return to their daily way of living. Silver sat in a booth watching out the window as the world goes by, as Twilight sits next to him while the others talked amongst themselves. “Silver?” Twilight asked. “Hmm?” Silver replied, still looking out the window. “I know we agreed to leave things off, but when you mentioned your ‘mentor’ did you mean...?” He simply nods. “Yeah. In my dreams, he comes to me... Told me what is likely my destiny, and it is the only time I ever talk to him. We train while in my dreamscape, which is how I got by this past year and a half. Unbelievable, yes, but I apply what I learn in real life.” Silver just explained. Twilight opened her mouth, but closed it. “...Do you think... That he could be out there somewhere in Equestria? I mean, how else could he visit you in a dream, which is something I thought Princess Luna was only capable of doing?” Twilight asked. “...I don’t know, but I do feel that maybe one day we will meet him for real. Until then, we just continue doing what we got to do, right?” Silver said, finally looking at her. She smiled and nods. “Right.” The two remained quiet for a bit, before Silver broke the silence for them both. “Oh yeah... By the way, there was something I forgot to mention when we were with the princesses.” Twilight looks at him curiously, raising her brow. “Huh? What would that be?” She asked. He then smirked, as the gemstone around his neck glowed a deep cyan blue aura, that pulled his Mythril Sword, which was resting against the wall, to him while he leans against it with his hooves holding the pommel. Twilight’s eyes just bugged out as her mouth hung wide. “I dunno... You tell me.” Silver simply said smirking.