Chapter Two
As Kali trotted done the winding path leading out of town, she thought more on the strange dreams that had plagued her sleep for roughly under a month. The strange mare she had seen, the hardly audible chanting, and Willow. What was Willow doing in her dreams? She thought fondly of her best friend. She cared deeply about him and gave a small smile at the notion that he might be important in her life, somehow. When they first started school, several years prior, every pony began getting their cutie marks fairly quickly. Stableton was known to have well-rounded ponies come out of their education system, with a good knowledge of what they wanted to be. All that is, except Kali. By the standards the other fillies and colts set, she was three years behind. No one seemed to notice, until she was the only pony left in the school without her cutie mark. Every pony made fun of her, calling her blank flank and such. Wailing Willow was the only exception.
Willow was a relatively shy pony, who seemed to get along with everyone. He had no real enemies, no quarrels with a rival. He was simply a quiet, kind colt, with a good head on his shoulders. he was one of the first ponies in class to get his cutie mark, a jack-o-lantern. He knew his favorite holiday was Nightmare Night, and he wanted to make each one as memorable as possible.
Kali's mind began to trail off, thinking of the first time Willow had ever talked to her...
Kali sat at her desk, scribbling on some notes. Class had just ended, and she was getting the last few sentences from a slide show on why some ponies are born with wings or horns, and others aren't. As she rose to leave, another pony pushed her back down into her seat. He was dark blue, with a white and sky blue mane and tail. His cutie mark was a pair of swim goggles.
"And where do you think you're goin'?" he said with a sort of Neanderthal drawl.
"Breaker, why can't you just leave me alone?" Kali sighed, in an unamused tone.
"Listen, blank flank," Wave Breaker continued as though he didn't hear her, "every other pony's got their cutie mark, 'cept you." He poked her in the chest forcefully to illustrate his point. "You gotta stay here, 'til you're as smart as me," he puffed his chest out proud at the notion of what he wanted to do with his life. He was a bull-headed individual, who's only thoughts were to swim, and bully those weaker than him. He was the equivalent of a shark. The only difference however was that sharks ate chum, rather than smelled of it.
Kali just glanced at the ground, a crestfallen look on her face. She knew she was smarter than Breaker and his meat-headed friends, but she just lacked the courage to stand up to him.
"What's wrong, Blank Flank," Breaker chuckled at his prejudice joke, "can't you even articlate?"
"Articulate." Kali replied softly.
"What was that?" Breaker looked both confused and slightly angry.
"Articulate," Kali repeated, a little louder. "The word you're trying to use is articulate."
"Why, you little..." Being quick to anger and physical abuse, Breaker pushed Kali out of her chair, and stood over her. Since class was over, Miss Appleworm was already gone and could not stop this.
Luckily, a colt with a black coat stepped in between Breaker and Kali. The colt was half the size of Breaker, but stood ground. "That's enough, Breaker." He said, stamping his hoof on the ground.
Breaker took a step back. He couldn't remember this little unicorn ever speaking, let alone standing up against some pony twice his size. He shook the confusion off and looked at the other colt with malice and contempt, "And what're you gonna do 'bout it, Willow?" he said, pushing Willow backwards.
Willow recovered quickly and said, "I'm a unicorn, and I know all sorts of magic that can do awful things to any pony who deserves it." he stood, hoping Breaker wouldn't call his bluff.
Luckily, he did not. The large colt looked scared for a moment, but immediately went into a passive-looking mood, "Pffft, you're just protectin' your fillyfriend. Guess I can respect that." He turned and trotted away.
Willow wasn't sure if it was because he had intimidated Breaker, or if he really had lost interest, but he didn't care. "C'mon," He turned and helped Kali up. "Let's get out of here, before he comes back with some of his cronies."
"Thanks," Kali gave a small smile, "My name's Kali."
"Nice to meet you, Kali," Willow responded, returning the smile, "My name's Willow..."
Kali smiled and looked at the path before her. This was the same path she and Willow had taken that day. It led south, out of town, around a large forest, and back into town on the west side. She stopped by the tree line, and slipped into the brush. She turned and saw a smaller path leading into the moderately sized forest. She began heading down that path, reminiscing still of her time with Willow. She didn't even notice when she arrived at her destination. She accidentally stepped under a small waterfall, which shocked her out of her trance. She stepped behind the water, and spit out some water, her teeth chattering, because of the cold weather.
"Nice one." Called a familiar voice. Willow was sitting near the waterfall. He had been waiting for Kali to show up. On the backside of the waterfall was a small cavern, lit by some lamps and lanterns. This was a small, out of the way place where Kali and Willow came to hang out. Being each others only real friend, they paired up on every class assignment they could. This is where they came to work on anything, so that no other pony would bother them. They had discovered it the first day they met, and it had worked since.
"Thanks," Kali said, sarcastically, wringing out her mane.
"Of course." While Willow was extremely conservative in public, he felt comfortable around Kali, and could speak his mind freely, "So what did Miss Appleworm have you do?"
"Just deliver something," Kali answered, shaking off any water left, "no big deal."
"Alright," Willow replied, walking over to his saddle bag, and pulling out some papers with his magic. He set them down at a table they had brought in, about a year ago, and began to look over them. "So," he said, "How should we conclude this essay?"
Kali's heart skipped a beat. In all the other things swirling and churning in her mind, she had completely forgotten about the essay they had to turn in by the beginning of next week. "Oh! Umm..." Her mind was still semi focused on her dreams, the rest was blank. She couldn't even remember what the assignment was supposed to be about. "Could you," she said, sheepishly, "Could you remind me what we're writing about?"
Willow sighed with a smile and looked over at his friend, "Your mind isn't in it today, is it?"
Kali shook her head with a meek smile.
"Alright," His horn glowed green and the two chairs in the small cave shifted so they were facing across from each other. He sat down in one and patted the seat to the other, "C'mon, let's talk about it."
Kali took they other seat, and looked at the table, "What about the assignment?"
"We'll finish it later," Willow reassured, "Now c'mon, now that we have some time to talk, what's on your mind? Is it those dreams?"
Kali nodded, "But nothing's changed. It's the same thing every night."
"Yeah," Willow said, thinking. "there's a muffled voice, some pony you don't know-"
"Right, a purple mare," Kali cut off, "and.. and you're there, of course."
Willow's heart jumped a beat or two when she said this, but didn't show it, "And is that all?"
"Well yeah," Kali thought for a moment, "But it's all too vivid and blurry. I can't remember anything else."
"Well," Willow began, piecing together his thoughts. "It's not my specialty, but I read somewhere that dreams may have prominent meaning to daily life." Kali nodded, listening to Willow's words. "And you're sure you don't know the mare?" He asked.
"Positive," Kali said, slightly exasperated, for how many times she had answered the question.
"Well," Willow thought some more, "maybe you're going to meet this mare soon."
Kali mused the prospect that her brain knew what was going to happen before she did. This just made her head hurt, and she asked Willow, "How can my brain know something, without realizing it knows it?"
"Hmm," Willow contemplated the question, but eventually changed subject, "Well how about the chanting? Did any of the words come out very clear?"
Kali just sighed and shook her head, "Nope."
"Any hard consonants?"
"No."
"Any familiar phonetic patterns?"
"No."
"Any form of inflection?"
"No, Willow."
"Then how do you know it was chanting?" Willow was confused on how something could be considered chanting, if there were no patterns in the speech or inflection at any certain point.
"Well, I..." Kali trailed off. How did she know it was chanting? "It had a sort of rhythm to it."
Willow sighed, "Aren't rhythm and inflection the same thing?"
Kali couldn't quite explain it. "Just trust me," She said, "it was chanting."
"Alright," Willow continued on, "what about..." He faltered. He didn't know what to make of himself inside of Kali's dreams. He must have been prominent or important to her in the dream, for her to remember him and only two other things.
"What about you?" Kali guessed at what her friend was going to say. "I don't know."
The two sat there, deep in thought. One thought about their lives together as friends up to this point, and where it would go from here. What they didn't realize was that the other was thinking the Exact. Same. Thing.
Silverlinings stood at the train station. He shivered as other pegasi above began moving storm clouds over head. Silverlinings grumbled a few choice obscenities under his breath at the timing of the weather crew. He had been waiting for half an hour, and the train he was waiting for had been delayed due to the conditions of the weather. Supposedly, Princess Celestia herself had sent her star pupil to help with the problems Stableton had been having.
"Pfft," Silverlinings huffed out loud, "If Celestia really did care about this old dead end of a town, we would have heard from her ages ago." Stableton was located in a crater, surrounded by mountain ranges. With no way of reaching it on hoof, very few ponies knew it was even there. Silverlinings had never seen Stableton on a map, even though he looked right where it was supposed to be. He wasn't a bitter stallion by any means, but when Celestia's name came up in conversation, he grew slightly sour. However, now he was forced to accommodate for the pampered pet of the Princess and all her little friends. "Never should have moved out of Cloudsdale." Silverlinings said through chattering teeth.
Several minutes later the howl of a train's horn became audible. The large, steam powered locomotive came to a grinding halt in front of the shivering pegasus.
"'Bout time," he chided, as the train poured hot steam that stopped his shivering.
The doors slowly opened up, and he expected four to six, extremely high maintenance mares to stride out of the locomotive, but instead, he was met by one extremely high maintenance mare, and her five friends.
"Oooohhh," Came a dramatic voice, as the steam cleared from the platform, causing the return of the cold sting of the air, "This cold is simply unbearable." The mare was a white unicorn, with a styled mane. She was lugging several bags, which she began going through as soon as the cold hit her, "And I didn't pack anything nice, for such harsh conditions. Oh, this is unacceptable Twilight, we must return to Ponyville this instant, so I can grab something more appropriate." She whined to her friends in the train.
"No can do, Rarity," came a rugged, but smooth voice as an orange earth mare stepped onto the landing, "We're here now, no sense goin' back f'r somethin' like a sweater. Besides, it ain't that cold." Although she could see her breath, this obviously working-class pony gave no sign of being cold.
"I don't know AJ," came a bouncy voice, as a pink mare appeared in between the first two, "Rarity is kinda delicate. Although she did handle herself against those diamond dogs. Then again, that was because of her whining. But she can also give faces with cold looks. LOADS colder than this. Like that," She shouted, pointing a hoof at the white mare, who was giving an immensely cold and unwelcoming stare. As soon as the pink earth pony pointed at her, she looked slightly surprised, and turned away from the overly enthusiastic mare, with a 'hmph' sound. "Oooooooooh," The pink mare continued, shivering, "I forgot how cold your cold shoulders were. Thanks a lot for reminding me-"
"Pinkie," yelled the orange mare, who had been trying to get her attention since she started her tangent, "list'n Sugarcube, why don' ya go see if you can find the pony who's supposed to meet us here, kay?"
"Oh that's easy," Pinkie pointed right at Silverlinings who was in shock that these were the ponies he was supposed to meet, "That guy's supposed to help us."
"And how can you be certain?" Rarity questioned, eyeing the Stallion up and down distastefully.
"Easy," Pinkie appeared behind the now startled Pegasus and pushed him up next to the other two, "He's been watching us since we got here. So he could either be our chauffeur, or a creeper!" She grinned at the two mares who were both confused.
"Um..." Rarity hesitated, "Yes, hello, sir. Sorry about our," she looked at Pinkie, "friend."
Silverlinings shook the surprise off and gave a warm smile, "It's alright. I think your friend hit the nail on the head, though. I'm here to help Twilight Sparkle, whom I think you called to earlier. You must be the friends who were going to accompany her."
"Eyup," The orange mare replied, tipping her hat, "Name's Applejack. That there's Pinkie Pie," she continued, pointing to the pink mare who was paying little attention as she looked around the train station, "and this's Rarity," She nudged the white mare.
"I'm glad to make your acquaintance, ladies," the Stallion answered politely. "I am Silverlinings, Captain of the local guard, and I've been appointed to give you a tour of the town along with making you as comfortable as possible while you're helping us with our problems."
"Of course," Said a fourth mare, of a violet hue, as she stepped out of the train. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and let me say that we are very thankful for your services," She gave a grateful gesture, which was a mixture between a nod and a bow.
Silverlinings nodded in return and asked, "I thought there would be more of you. Is any pony still in the train?"
A yellow pony poked her head out from behind the door frame on the train car, and gave a shy smile. "Hello, Silverlinings." she said, in a quiet voice.
Silverlinings' eyes lit up, "Fluttershy?" he asked, moving closer to the car. "Is that you?" He smiled, "I haven't seen you since flight camp!" As he got closer, instead of retreating in fear like she normally would, the yellow pegasus stepped out from behind the car door and stood straight as she talked to Silverlinings.
"How have you been?" She asked, still in her small voice.
"Well I've become the captain of the guard to a small, dinky town, so... can't complain." He smiled as he and Fluttershy exchanged a quick hug, "And how've you been?"
"Well I have great friends," She said looking towards the others, "and I care for lots of animals back home, in Ponyville."
"That's great." Silverlinings replied. "So," He continued looking over at Twilight, "is that every pony, or..."
He trailed off as he looked back at the train. Standing in the door frame was a cyan mare, with a mane of varying colors. She had a smirk on, and was looking Silverlinings in the eye. "Thought I heard your voice, Sil." She called in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone. She walked towards him and stared at him, smirk still on her muzzle.
"R- Rainie?" Silverlinings' eyes were wide in surprise, but he had a smile on.
"Since when do you call me for help?" She giggled slightly and walked past him, brushing his nose with her tail, on purpose.
Silverlinings wrinkled his nose, holding in a sneeze. "Hey," he said, turning around to look at her, "it wasn't my idea, but orders are orders."
"Sil?" questioned Rarity, looking at Apple Jack.
"Rainie?" Apple Jack returned the questioning look to Rarity.
"Orders? Since when do you take orders from any pony," Rainbow Dash turned back and walked straight towards Silverlinings, "Last time I checked, you always needed to be on top, every pony underneath you, right?" She gave a subtle wink to Silverlinings before walking around him again. Silverlinings' face turned a slight pink. He turned around to object at Rainbow Dash, but was interrupted by Twilight.
"Umm," She started, "Not to interject, but the air is rather chilly, and I was hoping we could get a move on and thaw out Pinkie Pie." She gestured towards the mare who had managed to freeze completely in a block of ice, mid hop.
"Right," Silverlinings said, gathering his thoughts. He picked up all of their bags in his saddle bags on his back, and looked at the six guests. "Please follow me."