The moment he saw Angel in the blurry vision, he instinctively reached out towards her with his hooves. "Angel… Angel?!!" Had she come here as well, fallen through the same timelock spell.. or had she come looking for him. All considerations about how this could logically be the case was thrown out of the window. It was her, and she was with him. "I've missed you so much, I.." Sharp pang of pain again, but she could heal that, she always had been able to. "What happened where am I.. how did you get here?"
Angel looked confused, and though he reached for her, she did not reach back. He noticed the beautifully decorative dress she wore, her hair styled in such an elaborate way it must have taken at least two hours. Twilight slowly approached, and took his hoof in hers. "We're at the Evodian hospital, Silver." She said gently. "You've been out for two weeks, and all you could say was Angel, where's Angel? So we did some digging, and brought you... well, I don't know if its the right one, but, Silver, meet the Princess of Evodia." He continued to hurt, his fiancee did not jump in to heal hiim as she always had. "It's nice to meet you, Silver. I understand you're a fairly big fan of mine."
Not Angel, or it was, but it wasn't his Angel. The bitter reality washed away the dreamy illusion, he closed his eyes and fought down a tear. She didn't know him, didn't respond to him. This was worse than not being able to meet her. He wasn't sure what to say or do around her. "Princess…" He tasted the word. On occasion he'd tried to get a feel for Angel's disposition towards that duty. In this world, either she never gave up the crown.. he looked to see her cutie mark. "Its an honor to meet you. We've meet before, but its hard to describe in a short amount of time and I don't know if I have the heart for it. Evodia.. and Equestria are in danger your highness" Had whoever who had done this gone back much further than simple Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom.. how far back had it been when Angel had discovered her knack of medicine?
He knew that this was when she had decided that she wouldn't be a princess. However in a world without Celestia there might have been a severe need for another princess in Evodia.. she didn't like the weight of the crown, but she would fill in those golden horse shoes if she had to.
The other five ponies slowly encircled him. Fluttershy and Twilight gently took hold of his left hoof, while Rarity and Applejack took his right. He got the feeling that they were comforting him for extremely unpleasant news. Angel slowly approached him, the silver scepter on her flank glittering. "It is with great regret that I must impart upon you some unfortunate news, Silver." She said as gently as if she was talking to a foal. "The danger can wait, momentarily." Her focus was on him.
His head swam, he tried to recall when Angel had discovered medicine. It had been.. he couldn't remember. The sudden attention of the ponies, their desire to comfort him made him far more anxious. Why was he in a hospital again? His head hurt.. no.. not just his head. A dread started filling him... "No..." He whimpered and tried feeling his horn, sensing the conduit of mystical energies within his reach.
The mares on either side of him tightened their grip on his forelegs. His hoof, despite its explorations, found only gauze and bandages. He moved it up, down, far beyond the radius of usual, searching for something he knew he wouldn't find. His horn was gone. The magical energy he sensed was extremely diluted, that feeling of not being able to find an object that was set down only moments earlier.
It had been a very long time since he had a last felt this absence. For three years magic had been a mundane part of his life. Ever present... now he wouldn't even be able to move a leaf. Sense mystical auras. Nothing. "No..." He shook his head. Powerless. Emasculated. This was a hard mission and now his big weapon had been removed. Deep breaths.. he took them and to calm himself. A certain word he couldn't remember invited itself to be yelled. Could this even be restored if he restored the timeline? Hopefully, it was his only hope. This alternate-hornless-Silver would fade and he'd be back in the castle, invited by Celestia and Luna. He needed to focus on the mission, sitting up he gritted his teeth. "Princess Angel, your kingdom is in danger." His hoof pawed a little more at the absence. "Has... stop fidgeting with me!" He told the ponies at either side and fixed his gaze on Angel. "Has Twilight filled you in?"
Angel nodded. "Yes, I have been filled in. The safety of Equestria is in danger, and, by extension, so is Evodia. Of course upon hearing this, I demanded to know all the details." She said gently. "I even pulled some strings to see if I could be any help in your quest, would you be aided by this?" Her horn levitated a large packet from the table. It was about the size of a small novel, but the large lettering on the front caught his attention more than anything. "FILE: DASH, R."
Instinctively he tried levitating it towards him. Whatever means he had felt before gripping onto what he had directed his attention to now felt like a vague gas and the file instead of lifting felt infinitely heavy. For the first time in three years he reached out with his hooves to carry something. "Yes.. thanks, this will be helpful. She's the missing piece of the puzzle" He took the file into his lap. "If this works, the timeline will shift and a lot of things will be different. For the better." He considered his words. She had another cutie mark, perhaps things had worked out differently here. "Princess... is your crown heavy?" Angel wasn't dumb, she'd get a metaphorical question.
Angel smiled, and approached to sit next to the side of his bed. "My mother once told me something I carry with me even today, early in my ruling days when I was unsure of my effectiveness upon taking the role of Princess, She told me, "Angel, the crown of a ruler is only as heavy as the heart of the one who wears it." She explained.
He considered that "Might I ask when you got your cutie mark?" It was important here. If they had gone back much further he would need to go every bit as far back as well. "This is important to figure out how we'll put Equestria's timeline back on track" She seemed at ease with being a princess in this world. Had she really let herself be held down in his, or maybe she was just saying nice things at the moment. "Did you ever work in a hospital?"
"I double in medicine when I'm not on the throne." Angel spoke very softly, not wishing to upset him. "May I ask what you did to your horn, Silver? When you were brought to me, it was almost completely broken in half. I've never had to remove a horn before." She asked. "I've seen fractures before, those heal with time, but..." She trailed off, obviously concerned.
"I wanted to get Apple Jack over there out of Manehatten. Its located inside a pocket dimension of sorts. No road really leads to it and for the same reason.. no road probably leads out of it. Teleportation was the only way in or out. We would have tried walking if I couldn't muster the energy of a group teleport.. apparently I could just barely… but I guess my horn couldn't take it" He shivered a little. He was magic less. Less than an earth pony who was in tune with the ground and the plant life and were naturally strong, weaker than a pegasus without wings.. "Its going to make this mission a lot more difficult, but I have a backup solution" He said and eyed Twilight. She'd have to carry the brunt of the spell work now.
Twilight caught his attention, and stood up straighter. "I will help you, Silver. We all will." Rarity coughed. "Excuse me, but SOME of us have more important things to - OW!" She pulled her hoof up sharply, from where it presumably had been kicked. "Fine. I'll help. But you're costing me valuable time." She said snobbishy. Fluttershy spoke up. "Read the file! Oh.. um... that is... if thats okay."
They reminded him of the eagerness of his undercover team back at Canterlot. What a poor excuse for Celestia he was. "Twilight, do you mind reading reading it for me? I would, but turning pages with hooves is a little difficult." He wasn't powerless, he decided. If he returned to the right timeline, then he hoped he got his horn back. If not, then he'd go on the transgrafting list as all other hornless unicorns. But all that magic didn't matter as long as he would be with Angel again.. the one that knew him. "A.." He corrected himself. "Princess Angel... would you mind casting a headache relief? I have terrible migraines."
"Of course." She said, and her horn glowed. His headache rapidly dissolved. Twilight flipped through the pages, trying to find something interested. "Birth date, family history, known colleagues, education... Rainbow Dash graduated from the Flight Academy with top honors." Fluttershy squeed. "Oh, I remember that day. There were a whole bunch of lovely little ducks swimming in the lake, they were so nice." Her cutie mark shimmered, but did not change from its current herbal alignment.
Note to self: Get Fluttershy to play with animals, in a safe environment. It would be doable now that she was relatively comfortable in the presence of her friends. Otherwise she seemed to have a maternal and sympathetic streak and he didn't mind playing weak and ask her to company him for a walk in nature. "Where did she go? Current occupation? Places she stayed at? Anything at all about what happened to her? She was supposed to have made a sonic rainboom, at.." He forgot the name of the event. It had been a particular race. He filled Twilight in on as many of the details as possible. "It was around the the time she earned her cutie mark."
"What do you remember of it Fluttershy? The day you noticed those ducks?"
Fluttershy squeaked. "Oh, um, Rainbow wanted to do this really special move at the conclusion of the ceremony, but she didn't tell anypony what it was. We waited and waited, but nothing ever happened. She didn't show up to the reception afterward, and I haven't seen her since." Twilight was flipping through pages, looking more interested by the minute. "It's no wonder, either. It says her most common colleague is a gryphon named Gilda, who lives in the Ponyville Observatory. Nopony has seen Rainbow Dash in years. This file includes records for a name change, dated not too long after her graduation." She flipped another page, and her eyes grew even larger. "Oh my."
"What?" Silver asked Twilight, wanting to know what had happened. Pieces were starting to slide into place. In this timeline Rainbow Dash hadn't accidentally performed a sonic rainboom, at that race. The event that had connected all six of them. By the academy days surely she would have discovered either a new cutie mark, or the same one and perhaps even figured out that she could do a sonic rainboom… and then she had gone missing. "I just need to know where she is currently. She's the only one of you who might know where things went wrong."
Twilight looked up slowly, obviously not too pleased with what she found. "Well, the good news is, we know where she is now. The bad news... it's not going to be easy getting to her." She lay down the opened file, and slid it across to Silver. A very aggressive looking Rainbow Dash stood posing for a photograph in a full body suit, even then looking as if she was ready to smack the photographer out of her way. "She's... she's a Shadowbolt."
He groaned inwardly. He couldn't fly. Now he couldn't do magic, he was ill at the moment and recuperating from his dash through the topsy turvy land of Manehatten. Meeting Angel here had demoralized him. And now he had to trek through another gigantic journey, to hunt down someone who had forgotten who she was, who were members of a set of ponies who had existed only vaguely as fliers controlled by Nightmare Moon. He couldn't do it, he just couldn't do it. Sitting up he eyed Twilight "Take Fluttershy, Apple Jack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity with you. Make Fluttershy remember her kindness and love of animals, make Rarity remember her generosity.." He looked at the purple maned mare. Good luck. "Send me letters informing me of your progress." He didn't have the energy to look down Rainbow Dash and bark the same tedious orders at her.
"You need to find Rainbow Dash and make her remember who she is. Once you're done you'll…" He gritted his teeth through another pang of headaches. "Make your way to this castle in the Everfree forests. There you'll discover the elements of harmony. When all that is done... come back here, and perhaps we can solve the final riddle together."
Angel still had her magic, and offered to teleport the five mares to Fluttershys cottage. They accepted, and after giving him a few hugs and final promises that everything would turn out alright, were sent off. Angel slowly looked at him, once they were alone. "I have one final piece of information that may be able to help you. But I tell you at risk of my own safety, divulging this information could cost my title." She said quietly. "I need you to promise, absolutely promise, to keep it to yourself. I give it to you only in the hope that it will guide you in your quest."
"Princess Angel, I've been taught how to keep state secrets. There are things I've kept secret even from my own wife." The worst aspects and cruelty of the human race. Some nefarious projects he was doing for Novaria such putting agents into the Canterlot castle. Some outrageous weaponizations and defense strategies that Evodia could utilize in emergencies if the elements of harmony should fail or be unavailable. "My lips are sealed."
"If it will help you, while I cannot tell you her exact location, I can give you your best chance to find Celestia, if she's around anymore at all." She summoned a scroll with her horn, and laid it out in front of him.
The scroll was a simple map, one of Canterlot. Several long lines stretched out from the castle, burrowing deep into the edge of the Canterlot boundary of Everfree Forest. "These are an old network of Diamond Dog tunnels, used as a bunker by royals and dignitaries in times of crisis. They're knowledge is absolutely top secret, but I think what you describe qualifies as a state of emergency, and I want you to return home to your fiancee. Twilight didn't tell me who she was, but I'm sure she's very lucky to have a stallion like you."
"Is it possible that you could escort me?" He asked. If not he'd go on his own hoofs, despite doctors orders to stay in bed. Finding Celestia wasn't paramount, but she could be a powerful ally. It wouldn't be long before whoever had done had realized that the six was gathered again. "That reminds me that I need to warn them about Celestia and Luna's castle where the elements are stored. It might be booby trapped."