Silver Dawn

by Summer Knight


The Cloud

"Come on, Luster, hurry up!" Li'l Cheese called as he pranced through the carnival funhouse. He seemed to have a sixth sense for where the path was—he never made a wrong turn, while Luster's nose was sore from bumping into glass walls.
Actually, considering whose foal he was, he probably did have a sixth sense.
"Alright, alright, I'm hurrying," Luster Dawn groused as she tried to pick her way through the maze of mirrors and artificial fog. All the unicorn magic in the world wouldn't help her keep up with that colt.
Why do I keep agreeing to foalsit for Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich? Li'l Cheese was hardly even a foal anymore. Luster had been left home alone all the time when she was younger than he was now. Still, when Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich had to rush off to the latter's factory to handle some minor emergency, they'd asked if she could take Li'l Cheese to the carnival in their place. For whatever reason, she'd agreed.
She supposed it was the years of friendship lessons from Princess Twilight rubbing off on her. After all, friends helped out friends, right?
Yeah, but friends are honest with each other, too, she thought—and if Luster were being honest, she really didn't like foals. But how do you tell two of your friends that you don't want to spend time with their kid anymore? That wasn't something that her lessons with Princess Twilight had ever covered.
Luster Dawn was so preoccupied with those thoughts that it took her a moment to notice the glowing green cloud creeping into the funhouse, mingling with the artificial fog around her hooves.
No, not creeping—rushing! Luster Dawn gasped and cast a magical barrier around herself. A moment later, a wall of sickly green vapor crashed over her like a wave. The golden shield crackled and sparked—the fog had to be some kind of magic spell—but, thankfully, it held.
Luster Dawn groaned with the strain of holding back... whatever this stuff was. She breathed a sigh of relief a few seconds later as the magical pressure against her shield receded, and the fog slowly settled to the ground.
Hesitantly, Luster made a small opening in her shield. She cautiously touched the vapor, using only the very tip of one hoof. Nothing happened; the cloud's strange magic was apparently spent.
Her relief turned to horror as she remembered where she was, and why.
"Cheese?" Luster called out, as loudly as she dared.
There was no response.
"Li'l Cheese?" A bit louder this time. Her voice echoed unsettlingly through the empty funhouse.
Wait, empty? There had definitely been other customers in here just a minute ago. Where had everycreature gone?
"Cheese?!" Her voice cracked, edging toward panic.
She could see the open door at the far end of the funhouse, on the other side of an invisible maze. What she couldn't see was Li'l Cheese, or indeed anycreature at all besides her own distorted reflections.
Oh, to Tartarus with it. Luster Dawn charged her horn and teleported straight to the exit of the maze. She ran out into the sunlight—or what should have been sunlight.
Her headlong sprint became an uncertain amble as she looked around. As far as she could tell, the entire carnival was smothered in the same green vapor that had filled the funhouse. However, instead of settling to the ground, out here it remained all around her. The fog was so thick overhead that, instead of the pure sunlight she'd expected, she was bathed in a pale green glow. Most unsettling of all, there wasn't a single other creature in sight.
"Cheese?" This time her voice was a shaky whisper. Only silence answered her.
Luster Dawn's mind raced, trying to think of some kind of magic that would explain what had happened here. How could hundreds of creatures have disappeared in an instant? She couldn't come up with an answer.
"Hello?"
Luster Dawn nearly jumped out of her skin. The sudden, shrill voice was like someone dragging broken glass over her jangled nerves.
"Hellooooooo?!" It came again, louder this time.
Luster squinted into the sky. Whoever was calling was definitely above her, but she couldn't see anyone through the green haze.
"Is anycreature out there?!" It was a feminine voice; high and strained, with a bit of vocal fry, as if its owner tended to scream a lot.
Actually, Luster Dawn recognized it.
"Silverstream!" she called up into the sky.
"Huh?!" the hippogriff yelled. "Who said that? I can't see you!"
"Down here!" Luster called out again.
"Where? Everywhere is down from here!"
"Oh, for—" Luster Dawn muttered. She gathered magic into her horn, lighting it up as a beacon for the featherbrained hippogriff. "Here!"
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, oh! Okay, I see you! I'll be right there!"
The clouds above Luster's head parted slightly as Silverstream dropped through them in a gentle dive. The pale pink hippogriff pulled up and flared her wings, landing softly on the grass beside Luster Dawn.
"Luster Dawn!" Silverstream exclaimed. "I didn't know you liked carnivals!"
"I don't," she grumbled. She was already regretting catching the excitable hen's attention.
"Well, then what are you doing here? Waaaiiiit..." Silverstream leaned in suspiciously, "did you do this?" She gestured vaguely at the green mist and the empty carnival.
"Did I—? Of course I didn't do this!" Luster spluttered. "First of all, why would I? Second... I'm not this powerful," she admitted. "Nopony is."
"Oh." Silverstream shrugged. "Well, that's all right then!"
Luster Dawn's eye twitched. "How is that all right?"
"Wait, is this your first big adventure?" Silverstream gasped. "AAAAAHHHHHH that's so exciting!" She grabbed Luster's shoulders in her front talons and shook her vigorously.
"SiiIIillllveeEEeeEerrrRstRReeEEaaAmmmmm!" Luster protested.
Once the hippogriff finally stopped shaking her—and her eyes stopped spinning—Luster Dawn stepped forward and craned her neck slightly to stare Silverstream in the eye.
"A magical mist of unknown origin swept through this entire carnival," Luster hissed. "Anycreature that came into contact with it vanished. It took all of my magic just to protect myself, let alone anyone else." Her breath was coming quickly and heavily again. "I was here foalsitting Li'l Cheese who has also disappeared! Now tell me, what bucking part of this is all right?!"
"Okay, okay!" Silverstream flew a few inches back and held up her forelegs defensively. "Look, this is obviously the start of an adventure. I mean, something bad and scary happened, creatures we care about are in trouble, and it's up to us to save them." The hippogriff threw her forelegs into the air in exasperation. "Haven't you ever listened to Twilight's stories? These things always work out fine! I was just relieved that you weren't the bad guy."
"I don't think that logic holds up—" Luster started to say.
"Look," Silverstream interrupted in a calmer tone, "I know it's scary; hay, I was younger than you are now when my friends and I had our first adventures." She gave Luster Dawn a gentle headpat. "But it's gonna be okay. I promise."
Silverstream's confidence and soft touch were oddly soothing. Luster Dawn took a deep, steadying breath as her panic subsided.
"Okay," Luster said. "Well, since you're the 'adventure' expert here, what do you think we should do?"
"Well," the hippogriff answered, "the first thing is always to find friends who can help. One friend is good—" she gestured to the two of them, "—but more is better. So, I say our next step is heading into town to get the others. Well, except Gallus, since we probably don't have time to go to Canterlot right now." Silverstream finally paused to take a breath. "Oh, yeah!" she exclaimed before she'd even finished inhaling, "and we should let Pinkie and Cheese know what happened. Though, knowing those two, I bet they Sensed it already."
Luster Dawn's pupils shrank to pinpricks. Tell Pinkie and Cheese that I lost their foal?!
"Wait, wait, hold on," Luster stammered as her heart hammered in her chest. "Transporting so many creatures would take a ridiculous amount of magic; they can't have gone far. Let me try a locator spell."
Without waiting for a response, Luster Dawn channeled as much magic as she could handle—which was quite a lot—into the strongest locator spell she could muster. A golden sphere pulsed out from her horn, stretching nearly half a mile in diameter before it faded. Luster Dawn would immediately know the locations of any sentient creatures inside that sphere. So, if she was right and the kidnapped creatures were still somewhere nearby, she was bound to find someone.
The spell encountered exactly two creatures: herself and Silverstream. Luster's head and ears drooped.
"Uh, well, that doesn't look good," Silverstream noted. "Nothing?"
"Nothing," Luster murmured.
"I'm sorry," the hippogriff responded gently. "So, into town?"
"Into town," Luster reluctantly agreed.


Silverstream flapped easily through the air, while Luster Dawn trotted along beside her. Silverstream admired her companion from the corner of one eye—the awkward little unicorn had grown into a lovely young mare. On top of that, Luster's years in Ponyville had done wonders for her attitude; she actively sought out friends, tried to help them, regularly reviewed her lessons from the School of Friendship and tried to apply them...
Okay, so Luster Dawn was a nerd. She was an attractive nerd!
What am I thinking about?! Silverstream thought with sudden horror. She's half my age! The hippogriff closed her eyes and took some deep breaths, trying to will down the blush rising in her face. She thanked her lucky stars that she was already pink.
"Silverstream?"
"Huh?! Uh—" she cleared her throat, "yes?"
Luster Dawn arched an eyebrow. "Well, first of all, are you okay?"
"Oh, uh, yeah! Yeah, totally fine, I was just thinking about... something. What's up?"
"Ooookay. Well, I was wondering how you avoided getting captured by the mist."
"Oh, that's easy!" Silverstream wished Luster would put her eyebrow back down; it somehow made her even more dorkily adorable. Adorkable? "When I saw the cloud coming, I turned into a seapony and hid underwater. I thought I would stay there until it went away, but—" She gestured to the still-present green fog around them.
Luster nodded. "So it doesn't pass through water, that's good to know. Thankfully, it seems like the transport spell is spent. But something must still be keeping the cloud here, or it would have dissipated by now."
"Why, though?" Silverstream asked. "If it's not doing anything anymore, why keep it around?"
Luster Dawn shrugged. "Who knows? I have no idea what kind of magic we're dealing with here."
After that, they traveled in silence for a few minutes. Eventually, the carnival's front gate came into sight through the fog.
"Oh," Silverstream said.
A crackling wall of green energy stood just beyond the entrance. It stretched left, right, and up as far as the hippogriff could see.
"Well, I guess we know what's keeping the fog here," she added.
"But why?" Luster Dawn echoed Silverstream's earlier question. "If the fog had done its work, there wouldn't be anycreature left in the carnival. Why have this barrier?"
"Do you think it's here for us?" Silverstream asked. "Like, just in case somecreature got away from the fog like we did?" She slowly stretched out a talon.
"Wait!" Luster Dawn shouted. "Don't touch—"
"EEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Silverstream gave a bloodcurdling shriek as sickly green magic coursed through her.
Her muscles convulsed, her feathers burned, and she would have sworn her blood was boiling. Worst of all, there was a horrific tearing feeling deep inside her chest, as if some burning claw had reached deep inside and ripped away some crucial part of her.
The pain seemed to last for ages, though it really couldn't have been more than a few seconds. Finally, mercifully, the magic retreated back into the barrier, leaving Silverstream to collapse to the ground.
Silverstream's vision was fading quickly. The last thing she saw was a very concerned, very pretty young unicorn leaning down to look at her.
"Silverstream?" The pink unicorn's voice was weirdly distant.
"Silverstream!" The word sounded familiar, but the hippogriff couldn't quite make it out through the rushing in her ears. Then her eyes fluttered shut, and everything went dark.