//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three 
// Story: The Shadow of Mortals 
// by Silverlinings 
//------------------------------//

	Chapter Three




"And this suite will be for Miss Sparkle." Silverlinings concluded, as he finished showing the six guests to their rooms in the royal castle.
"Please," Twilight said, turning around and looking at their gracious host, "You can just call me Twilight."
"If you say so, Mi-" He caught himself, "Twilight." He cleared his throat. "I'll leave you all to get settled. We can begin tomorrow morning." He turned and left down a flight of stairs.
As soon as she was sure he was out of ear shot, Rainbow Dash jumped onto a bed and stretched. "This is gonna be great."
"Um, why?" Fluttershy asked.
"Oh um," Rainbow thought quickly, "it's nothing. Just this cool crib they gave us." She looked around while speaking, "Almost as cool as me. Well, I should probably get some sleep before we start this." She quickly rolled over so she wasn't facing the other ponies and pretended to snore loudly.
"She's right girls," Twilight said to the others, "We're gonna need our sleep."





Willow and Kali were walking down the winding path leading back into town. They had just finished a conversation in their secret hangout, and were heading back. When they reached the main road they decided to take separate paths back home, due to the fact that their most previous interaction had ended on a particularly awkward note.
"Kay, see you tomorrow." Willow said as he and Kali parted ways. He was now trotting down the road on his own. As he moved, the wind started to pick up. It wasn't howling, but it began to whistle in his ears. Through the wind, Willow heard a faint voice.
"Huh." He turned around, and looked around. No other pony was within ear shot. Willow shrugged it off and kept walking. After several minutes, the wind began growing stronger. Willow heard the faint voice again.

Willow...

"Who's there," Willow looked in all directions, but no pony became visible. The gust was growing stronger and it stung his eyes, making it difficult to see.

Willow...

The colt glanced in all directions. The voice was getting louder, clearly calling his name. He lit his horn up, trying to get a better look through the gale.

Willow...

The unicorn jumped. While the voice was still hushed, it felt like who ever was whispering was right next to him.
As he turned to see who it was, he was met with a tall, looming figure. This dark pony had black, leathery wings, not like the feathered ones of the pegasi. His eyes were a cold, piercing steel grey. He simply stood and stared at Willow, unfazed by the gusts of wind. He had a red, silver and black cape billowing behind him. However, as soon as Willow blinked, this strange stallion vanished.
Instead, Willow could see a brownish tan blur, slowly moving towards him. "Willow!" It shouted.
Willow recognized this voice. "Sis?" He yelled back, galloping with all of his might against the roaring winds. Soon enough, the blur came into focus. A brown earth mare was making her way through the gale towards Willow. "Cornucopia!" He shouted, finally reaching her.
Cornucopia had a light yellow mane and tail, and a cutie mark for her namesake. She looked sternly at Willow and yelled above the wind, "I've been looking everywhere for you! Come on! Let's get home!" She turned and starting walking in the other direction. Willow followed.

As soon as the two of them were back inside and out of the cold, Cornucopia turned and glared at Willow. Willow looked down, sheepishly. After a little time for silence, Cornucopia asked sternly, "What have I told you about staying out when the weather's like this?"
Willow hesitated. Eventually, all he said was, "I'm sorry."
Cornucopia's face softened. She no longer looked angry, but slightly saddened. She leaned down to talk to Willow, face to face. "Hey," she started, "I am sorry for yelling, it's just..." She stopped to think about what she was going to say. This was still a sore subject. "When Mom and Dad disappeared, that left me in charge of you. If something were to happen to you, I couldn't live with myself. I was just worried. Ok?" She smiled, trying to get some positive feedback.
Willow sniffled, and a single tear dripped off his muzzle. It had been years since their parents disappeared. They weren't even around to see him get his cutie mark. His older sister was more of a mother to him now, and they were very close.
"Come on," Cornucopia nudged Willow, trying to distract him from the harsh memories. "It's time for dinner."





Kali came home to a quiet house. She knew what this meant: her baby brothers were napping. She tread lightly, making her way into the kitchen. She saw her mother working frantically, trying to keep everything in line. She moved with great urgency around the kitchen, cleaning, cooking, and generally trying to keep the peace.
"Hey, Mom." Kali called, as she set her bag down on the dining table.
"Hello, Sweetie," Her mother replied, vigorously scrubbing at a stain on the counter.
"Do you need any help?" Kali looked around at the kitchen. It was obvious that her mother couldn't keep it all under check.
"Oh no. Thank you, though." Her mother stood up. She and her daughter looked much alike, the only differences being that her mother did not have a yellow streak in her mane, and she had a cutie mark of a rolling pin and some dough. This avid baker looked at her filly and added, "But you could go get your father and bring him down for dinner. He's in our room, watching TV."
"Sure thing Mom." Kali walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
When she got to the bedroom door, she knocked, and called, "Dad, time for dinner."
"Come on in, sweet pea." Came a hoarse voice, from the other side of the door.
Kali opened the door to find a brick red pegasus with a frizzy yellow mane and a smiling sun cutie mark laying on a bed, laughing at a program on the television to his right. "Come on," he said, patting part of the bed with his left forehoof. "this was one of my favorite programs when I was your age."
Kali smiled and sighed, "C'mon Dad. Mom says dinner is ready." She moved across the room, and pulled a folded device out of the closet.
"Oh, alright." the stallion huffed. He grabbed the remote control and turned the television off, and grabbed his glasses off the night stand. The remote and the glasses, along with everything else he would need, were all on his left side.
Kali unfolded the device and placed it next to the bed. She lifted her father up and into it. It had two wheels in the back, keeping his back hooves from hitting the ground. It also kept his right forehoof folded to his side, with another wheel extending off of the pad it rested on. Kali put her hooves on the handles in the back of the contraption, and began pushing her father out of the room.
"How you feeling today, Dad?" Kali asked.
Her father sighed, "My only good hoof is starting to go numb and a little tingly. I suspect it'll be any day now." Kali's father suffered from Motor Neuron Disease. MND attacks the cells in your body allowing muscle movement. Slowly over time, you begin to lose the ability to use your extremities. In serious cases, it attacks the heart, destroying the pumping muscles around the organ, resulting in death. However, the pegasus showed no signs of this, which made him hopeful. Kali took her father down the stairs, one step at a time. He used his only good hoof to keep himself from falling down the stairs. Kali's family weren't exactly rich, so they couldn't afford to have their home outfitted for the handicapped.
When they successfully made it to the landing, Kali wheeled the stallion into the kitchen, and parked him at the dinner table. The kitchen was immensely cleaner then Kali had last seen it, but her mother was still working hard.
"Afternoon, Hun." the red pony called as his wife approached him.
"Hello, Darling." She smiled and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"Thank you, Kali." Her mother turned to her, "Now can you go get your brothers?"
Kali skipped out of the kitchen and down the hall, but stopped, as she approached the family room. She didn't want to startle her brothers, so she moved slowly into the family room, and approached their pen.
The twin foals napped contently, both unaware of their sister's presence. The twins, Apollo and Helios, were almost identical, each a red pegasus with a green mane, the only difference being that Helios had his father's light blue eyes, while Apollo had his mother's brilliant green eyes.
"Hey, you two." Kali said, softly, "Time to wake up." She watched as the two foals gave cute yawns and rubbed their eyes. They looked up at her, big smiles on their faces. "C'mon, you guys hungry?"





Silverlinings sat alone, in his dining room picking at his salad, but he just didn't have the heart to eat. An empty chair sat in front of him. There was a time when he'd have company, making the other chair necessary. He would invite his mare friends over for a romantic dinner, and on a couple separate occasions, his colt friends. However, most recently, one of the most precious things to enter his life would sit across from him: his niece. Marigold Mist had been the world to Silverlinings. They had a strong relationship, as if he were her own father... Her father... Mercury Mist hadn't disappeared like the other ponies going missing. Silverlinings never had the heart to tell Marigold what happened to her father. He went out for drinks with his friends, like he normally did on Fridays. However, on that same night, there was an all out brawl at the bar. Mercury went missing. The police recovered the body two weeks later, floating face down in a river, a mile out of town.
All of these thoughts made Silverlinings sick to his stomach. He looked down at his plate, and noticed there were tears speckling his salad. He pushed the plate away and went upstairs to go to bed, leaving his dinner untouched. Just like last night, and the night before that, and the night before that.