//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 - Something Lurks in the Night 
// Story: The Family of Time 
// by Ephraim Blue 
//------------------------------//

	"Happy Birthday!" she said to the twins as she laid the cake down in front of them. "Happy Thirteenth Birthday you two!"

"Thanks mom!" Silver said, staring at the cake in awe. "You've really outdone yourself this time."

"Yeah," Hope agreed. "This cake looks like the best one yet!"

"I know. Now make a wish. Both of you. You only turn thirteen once."

Hope giggled. ""Mom, you tell us that every year."

"Well its true, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Silver said, prodding his sister in the side with his hoof. "Come on, make your wish and let's blow out the candles! I can't wait to taste mom's cake this year!"

"Alright, alright! I'm wishing, I'm wishing!" she said as she tightly closed her eyes for a few seconds. Once she opened them, she took in a deep breath and began blowing them out.

"Hey! I wasn't ready!" her brother said before beginning to blow out the thirteen candles as well.

Once the candles were out, their mother began cutting up the cake into sixths. "Alright now, each of you get two pieces. Don't eat them too quickly now, you hear?"

"Yes mom," they said in unison before receiving their cake. Silver, being a pegasus, dove right in and eating up the cake. Hope, a unicorn, took a small fork like her mother did in her magic and at the cake slowly.

They sat in silence while eating the cake. Silver had finished early and ran off into the park they sat at to play with the other kids.  Hope joined later while their mother sat at the picnic table and watched them.





The day went by much quicker then expected for the twins. Playing in the park all day while their mother watched them was nothing compared to when they returned home and received their presents. Hope got a brush that belonged to her mother while Silver got an old blue watch that their mother said belonged to their father.

"I... know that your father can't be here to give this to you personally," she had said. "But I'm sure that he would have wanted you to have this."

"Dad carried around a musty, old blue watch?" Silver asked back.

"Trust me. Your father loved that watch."

"More than you?" Hope had asked.

That had caused their mother to giggle. "I highly doubt that. He may have had that watch for a long time, even longer than he knew me, but he would have given the world for me. And I'm sure he'd do the same for you two."

Hope lied in her bed, thinking about that while her brother entered the room, still glancing at the old watch on his hoof. "This thing's broken," he accused. "Look, it doesn't even move!" 

"I'll take your work for it," Hope replied, pushing back her brother's hoof as he tried to shove it in her face.

"Do you think it worked when dad first got it?"

"It must have. Otherwise, why would he keep it?"

"Good point," he replied, lying down on his own bed as he continued glancing at the watch. "What do you think it did?"

"It's a watch. It tells time, like all the others."

"Yeah, but do you think this watch was different?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well mom's always been telling us about his adventures, right?" She nodded back. "Well, do you suppose it did something like shoot lasers from the little dot in the middle?"

Hope stifled a laugh. "I highly doubt that out dad had a watch with a laser firing mechanic on it."

"Yeah, but it could have one, right?"

"If it did, do you think it'll still work?"

His smile diminished quicker than the cake from earlier. "You are really unimaginative. You know that, right?"

"I am imaginative!"

"Really? What do you think the watch did?"

She thought about that for a second. "I don't know. If a watch were so special, why did mom allow it to get so beat up and old?"

He shrugged. "Maybe she didn't want to think about it much."

"Why did she keep it all these years anyway?"

"Well it was dad's watch. Maybe she kept as a reminder to dad."

"Maybe... Then why'd she give it to you if it was so important to her?"

"You ask too many questions," their mother spoke up, causing the both of them to jump and instantly look at her. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you two. Just wanted to come in and see how you were doing."

"We're fine," Silver replied. "Just imagining what dad's old watch did."

"It's a watch," she replied. "It tells time."

"See?" Hope asked mockingly, causing her brother to sneer at her.

"Well if you two are alright," their mother began, "then go to sleep. It's another big day tomorrow." She turned to leave the room.

"Wait," Hope said, causing her mother to turn back around toward them.

"Yes?"

"Can... Can we hear another story? About dad?"

Her mother smiled back. "Of course," she said, sitting down on Hope's bed. "Which one do you want to hear?"

The one story you haven't told us... she thought. "How did dad die?"

Her mother's smile diminished and she glanced around, looking at nothing in particular. She finally focused her gaze on Hope's brother. "Do you both want to hear this story?"

Silver nodded in response. "You've... always told us about how dad was brave and adventurous. But if he was all that, then I would like to know how he died."

Their mother sighed. "Alright. I suppose you two would have to know eventually." She got in a more comfortable position to sit. "Well, it was just a few days after you two were born. Your father was once a member of Princess Celestia's Royal Guard, but that was a long time ago. He was called back on an urgent matter regarding something top-secret. With after a long time of convincing to leave you two, he promised that he would be back in time for supper."

A small tear formed in their mother's eyes. "He never came home that day. I waited for him to fulfill his promise, like he always does. When a royal guard came the next day, he gave me the dreadful news."

She paused and levitated a small handkerchief to dry her tears. "He said that your father had been killed in action by a gang of bandits. They came out of nowhere, you see, and your father was unprepared. When the other guards finally managed to drive them away, your father was beyond saving at that point, even by the most potent healing magic. They did all that they could, the other guards that survived. They said he was a hero for all that he had done for us."

She wiped the final tears from her eyes as Hope and Silver sat in silence of the story they heard. "Now, I don't want you two to have nightmares because of this story, you hear? Try to get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

They both blinked. "Alright mom," Silver said.

"Goodnight," Hope finished.

Their mother smiled back at them. Without another word, she left the room and turned off the lights.

Hope curled up in her blankets, ignoring her brother's protests about the story and did her best fall asleep in the light of the moon.





A crash awoke Silver from his sleep. He blinked his dreary eyes open and looked around. The sound hadn't been in this room. His sister still seemed to be asleep and their mother slept in a different room. No more sounds came from the house, but he stayed awake, allowing his night vision to set in.

Once it did, he quietly stepped over to where his sister lay and began prodding her with a hoof. Sis... Sis... Wake up!

Her sister's eyes blinked open. "What...? What is it?"

"Shh! Keep your voice down!" he hissed back at her. "I heard something just now."

"So did I," Hope mumbled back.

"Really?"

"Yes. You. Now let me go back to sleep."

Silver grumbled. "No. I heard something else. It sounded like a crash."

"Probably just your imagination," she replied. "Now shut up and go back to sleep."

Silver grumbled to himself. "Fine! Go back to sleep if you want. I'm going to find out what that sound was."

"Mmm," his sister mumbled, resting her head back on the pillow and breathing slowly. Silver, however, walked slowly over to the door to their room and creaked it open. It was loud, but didn't seem to cause much attention.

He slowly walked out the door, glancing at everything that seemed to make a sound. The hallway seemed longer than normal now that he was being cautious. When he reached the end of it, it opened up into three other rooms, the living room, the kitchen, and another hallway that lead to the top floor.

Another soft sound came from the living room. A small creak of one floorboard. It always did that when somepony put too much weight on it.

Somepony was there... In the dark. His mother never wandered in the night, he's stayed up plenty of times to know that.

Before he could scream, a cloth that smelled weird came over his muzzle, and he began to feel drowsy.





It was the thump that awoke Hope. Sure, her brother had bothered her about a crash or something not too long ago, but that was just his imagination.

Right?

She lifted herself on to the floor and began to stretch. With a quick Illumination of her horn, she glanced over to her brother's bed. Empty.

That knucklehead, she thought. Really thinks that there was a crash. She stopped her thoughts. Then why did I hear something?

She walked over to the door and into the hallway, rubbing her eyes. "Silver, if you hearing some sort of crash was just an excuse for a midnight snack, I'm telling mom in the morning."

She continued looking down the hallway, hoping for an answer.

There was none.

"Silver, this isn't a game. If you stop this now, I won't have to tell mom about this too." Still no answer. "Silver?"

Slowly, she walked down the hallway. Her horn illuminated all around her, so she could see easily. It wasn't long before she found her brother lying unconscious on the floor.

"Silver!" she nearly screamed, running toward his unconscious body. Shaking him violently and continuously calling out his name.

"Well, well, isn't this a surprise. A unicorn and a pegasus. How interesting."

Hope blinked and turned in the direction of the voice. "W- Who's there?"

"Can't see me?" the voice said again from behind her. "Allow me to shed a bit of light next to yours."

A horn illuminated in the dark, glowing green. Hope saw a gray unicorn with a green mane that spiked orange at the end. His tail mimicked his mane and his cutie mark consisted of four orange bubbles.

But what brought her attention was his eyes. Dark and lifeless, almost. His iris was nothing but black, and he seemed full of anger and rage. "I do believe it is impolite to stare," he said, causing her to tilt her head away from his eyes. "Clever filly. Perhaps you could tell me where I can find somepony."

She cowered as he stepped toward her. "I am only going to ask this once. Where is your father?"