Chapter Seven
"Sil...," Rainbow Dash looked away. She couldn't bare to look him in the eyes. "I... I should go. Gotta get back to saving every pony," she forced a smile and a chuckle, and proceeded to head out of the room.
Silverlinings heard the front door slam as Rainbow Dash left him for a second time. He stood there, alone and uncertain of what to do. What the hay are you doing just standing here? He thought. The mare of your dreams just walked out on you, again and you're just going to stand here, feeling sorry for yourself? Silverlinings took a deep breath and weighed his options. It was obvious she still felt something for him. What did he have to lose?
"Hey Rainie," Dash turned around to see Silverlinings standing in the doorway to his home. "Do you want to get a bite to eat tomorrow?"
Rainbow Dash smirked. "Sure, but you're paying." She turned back around and spread her wings, ready to take flight. "I'll see you 'round 6." With that, she took off leaving inch deep hoof impressions from where she kicked off. As soon as she was sure Silver couldn't see her, the cyan mare's smirk softened, into a warm smile. Maybe it can still work out...
Rainbow Dash landed on the roof of the castle. The vibrant colors of the flowers shone in the moonlight. She made her way inside and started looking for her friends. She went down a flight of stairs to the conjoined suites they were accommodated with, and found Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.
"Hey, Girls," Rainbow approached them and looked at AJ and Pinkie, "Find anything at the house you went to?"
"Well, actually... yeah," The orange earth mare looked concerned. "We found this creepy ol' mirror an'-"
"And it's spookifyingly shiverific!" Pinkie blurted out, grabbing the chromatically gifted pegasus by the shoulders.
"It's... what?" She looked at the other mares, hoping for some clarification.
"What she means is," Fluttershy piped up, "this mirror is super scary and Twilight said it might be evil."
"Speaking of which, where is she?" Dash looked around the room but found no sign of their book worm of a friend's presence.
"She's gone an' locked herself up in her room," AJ motioned towards the hallway, where the entrance to each suite was located. "Say's she ain't comin' out 'til she's got somethin'."
"Well," Rainbow cracked her neck and yawned, "could some pony let her know I'm back? I'm beat," She walked through one of the doorways into the suite next door and collapsed on the bed.
"C'mon, Fluttershy!" Pinkie wrapped her hoof around her shy, yellow friend and proceeded to drag her into the hallway, "Let's go!"
"Oh... ok," The timid pegasus did little to stop her boisterous pink friend.
Borealis Burnout sauntered around the castle. She hated nights like this; when she had to patrol the halls and nothing was happening. She should have kept with the job of training the recruits, but she instead decided to pass that off to Whimsy Daydream: a particularly lazy pegasus who had all the expertise to get the job done, if she could just get the motivation. Burnout gave some choice obscenities under her breath at her own stupidity. To top it off, this was Silver's night off, so she couldn't even hang out with him. "I hate working swing shift," she muttered.
She eventually bumped into Platinum. "And where have you been all day?" Burnout asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Out," The teal pony answered, shortly. She started walking, but was blocked by Burnout.
"Out where?" The brown pegasus inquired. "I am technically your bodyguard and I need to know these things, ya know?"
"Nah," Platinum shook a hoof, "you're more like a big sister." Dodging the question, she tried moving by again. This, however, was a fruitless effort.
"Kid," Burnout was getting frustrated, "where were you? That's all I need to know."
"Out with friends," Platinum answered.
The pegasus snickered, "First of all, since when do you have friends?" She asked jokingly tussling the heiress' mane. "Second, what was so hard about telling me that?"
Platinum blinked, a little in shock. "You aren't angry that I went somewhere without permission?"
"What? Kid, this is me you're talking to. I'm not exactly a number one role model," Burnout almost seemed offended at her own words. "Anyway, you were told to just go deliver something right? No pony said you couldn't get side tracked. Now who're these 'friends' of yours?"
Platinum Jubilee went on to talk about Kali and Willow, as she and Burnout began walking together.
"Oh yeah," Burnout thought aloud, "I think Kali is Silver's friend. she seems cool." They continued walking around for a few minutes, when they heard some pony yell from the hall just around the corner.
"What the hay?" Burnout began trotting toward the origin of the scream, Platinum in tow.
The two came to an open doorway with a purple unicorn examining a mirror, a yellow pegasus cowering on the floor and a pink earth mare bouncing around the room.
"We heard some pony yelling. Is everything alright?" Burnout asked.
"For the time being, yes," Twilight replied. "In the long run, however, I don't think so..."
The brown pegasus and the filly looked confused.
"I need to speak with Lady Jubilee as soon as possible," Twilight continued, placing the mirror on a table.
"She's gone to bed," Borealis pointed out, "but you can see her first thing in the morning."
"Alright," Twilight huffed, "we might as well get some shut eye." She turned to talk to Pinkie Pie, but found she was already fast asleep, with her head on the ground and her rump in the air. Twilight sighed, "It has been an exhausting day..." She used her magic to levitate Pinkie across the hall, into her own room and bed. The purple mare yawned loudly as she walked back across the hall. "Lights out, girls," She called into Rarity's room, where her and AJ had been talking. "Big day tomorrow."
Fluttershy also went to her respective room, still trembling at the thought of the mirror.
"Goodnight, Miss," Burnout said as Twilight closed her bedroom door. "Same goes for you, Squirt," She said as she spun around to look at Platinum.
"Aww," She whined, "but Burnout-"
"Don't even try that," Burnout gave a devilish grin, "unless you want some pony who'd give a buck to know where you were. They might not be as understanding as me."
That shut Platinum up immediately. She scurried off to bed without another word.
"Well..." Burnout sighed, restarting her mindless wandering of the castle, "I got the whole night ahead of me..."
Kali...
Oh Kali...
Wake up, Kali.
"Kali!" Kali slowly opened her eyes, escaping the nightmare she had endured for weeks. The dark, menacing voice she was used to had been replaced by a less threatening, more familiar one.
"Willow...?" She asked, groggily, her vision still adjusting.
"C'mon Kali, get up," Willow sat at her bedside, nudging her constantly. "Something's happened at the castle!"
Kali sat up and stretched. "The castle...?" It took her a second for these words to sink in. Her eyes grew wider as she repeated the words, "The castle!?"
"C'mon! Your folks already got a head start," Willow and Kali trotted down, out of the house and headed towards the castle on the edge of town.
"So what happened?" Kali asked as they ran.
"Don't know. Apparently Silverlinings is keeping the details really hushed," Willow answered.
"Then why are we going, if he isn't saying anything?" Kali slowed down a little, thinking.
"Because we have an inside source," Willow yelled over his shoulder.
It took Kali a moment to realize what Willow was talking about. "Platinum?" Kali began running again, trying to catch up to Willow. "D'you think she'd know?"
"Well, she does live there," Willow called back.
They eventually made it to the front gates of the grand castle. A large throng of ponies had already assembled. As they approached, Willow's social anxiety took over and he grew dead quiet. Although it was a small town, almost all of these ponies were complete strangers and he stopped several feet from the crowd.
Kali stopped and turned around to look at him, "You ok?"
Willow took a deep breath, his pulse quickening. "uhh... not sure." They had to get through the crowd to try and find Platinum Jubilee, but his agoraphobia had gotten the better of him. His sight darted from pony to pony, each one seemed more intimidating than the last.
"C'mon," Kali took a step towards the crowd, "you'll be fine. You're not this bad at school," she pointed out.
"That's because I kind of know every pony in our class," the unicorn answered, bluntly. "This... this is a completely different set of circumstances...."
"Willow, hey Willow," Kali clapped her hooves together, getting his attention.
Willow looked down from the vast swath of ponies and looked at Kali. She was smiling, gently.
"Just focus on me, ok?" She held out her hoof. "We're gonna walk through the crowd and I want you to only focus on me, ok?"
Willow's heart rate slowed, almost to it's normal speed. He swallowed hard and nodded, "ok..." He took her hoof and the purple pony began leading him through the waves of patrons. They moved slowly, but productively.
"You'll be ok, Willow," Kali reassured. "Just look at me."
Seeing Kali's smiling face as she walked backwards to face him, eased Willow's tense mind. He really wished he was like this; he was always so afraid and so timid in public, but had no idea why. Kali on the other hoof, she was so open, kind and inviting. Always so nice to every pony, willing to talk about their problems. It was one of the things that Willow loved about her.
"Willow... Willow," The black unicorn shook his head, snapping himself back to reality. Kali was still smiling at him. "You made it through, Willow." She smiled even bigger at him.
Willow glanced around and noticed the whole crowd was behind him. He turned back to Kali, blushing slightly, and stating, "I have you to thank..."
Kali giggled and turned around, looking at the gate to the castle, which was closed up. After several minutes of looking around, waiting for some pony to come out, Silver obliged and exited the castle to speak to the crowd. What little, hushed sounds the crowd was making died as the white pegasus stepped up the other side of the gate.
He cleared his throat before he began speaking, "Ponies, I'm sorry to keep you all waiting, but for right now, the royal family would like to keep this affair quite. Details will be released as they see fit." This caused an uproar of questions from the crowd, most of which turned out to be reporters. Silverlinings gazed around the crowd, eventually noticing Kali and Willow. He approached them from the other side of the gate and whispered to them, quickly, "Platinum asked for you. Head around back and I'll let you in." Luckily in the rumble of the crowd, no other pony heard the pegasus. He turned around and reentered the house without addressing any of the quizzical ponies. The two friends looked at one another and began trotting around the perimeter of the estate.
After a couple hours of silence, a forlorn looking pegasus emerged from the house once more. By now, entire reporting crews had arrived and some pony had set up a podium with several recording mics, for what looked like a small press conference. Silverlinings just rolled with it and approached the microphones. "Fillies and gentlecolts, I regret to inform you, that Lady Diamond Jubilee has disappeared."