//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 - Lies Bring Us Together 
// Story: The Family of Time 
// by Ephraim Blue 
//------------------------------//

	Silver stared at his sister. "Hope, what are you doing?" he hissed into her ear. "You heard Mom, it's dangerous here!"

"I'm finding out the truth," she said.

"But we have to get someplace safe! What if that stallion comes back?"

"I don't care about that!" she shouted back at him, causing shock for both her brother and mother. "We've been lied to, Silver... Lied to our entire lives. She always told us that he was gone--that he died in an accident just several weeks after we were born! And now a stallion comes, attacks us in the middle of the night, demanding to know something we can't give him and is willing to kill us to get that information! And now..." a tear fell from her left eye, "there's a chance that he might actually be out there. A father we never knew except from stories to lay us to rest at night."

"Hope..." Blade began.

"No!" she shouted back. "tell us the truth. Now!" She paused to quiet her voice down. "I- Is our dad alive? Why is there a stallion like that after him? Why did he ask you to keep him a secret? W- Who was he Mom?!"

There were several moments of silence in which Hope refused to turn her angry face from her mother, who was crying herself. Silver just stared at the two of them, unsure what to think or what to do.

"I... I wanted to tell you two..." their mother cried. "So much... But your father... he said that if you two knew, you'd only be in more danger. I couldn't imagine ever seeing you two get hurt for your fathers' problems, so I kept him a secret..."

Hope's face seemed both relieved and on the verge of crying. She breathed heavily and her throat got caught up, preventing her from speaking until it went away. "So he's alive then..."

Their mother nodded slowly. "Yes... and he--"

"Why thank you kindly for that information," the stallion spoke again, emerging from behind a wall of the wreckage of their house. Silver couldn't stop shivering in fear when he came out while Hope and their mother whisked around in surprise at his voice. "Now if you would so kindly point me in the direction to where that coward hides, I might just allow this small family to live a little longer."

"How...?" Silver asked. "Y- You vanished!"

"A simple forced-teleportation spell will not be enough to keep me away. Now, where is he?"

"I don't know," Blade said. "And if I did, I would never tell the likes of you!"

The stallion chuckled. "I believe you." A spray of energy suddenly shot from his horn, knocking Blade in one direction while sending Hope and Silver in the other. "And now, I'll take back what's Father's." He started walking toward Silver, the look of a maniac in his eyes as his chuckles turned into laughs.

"Get away from them!" Blade shouted and tackled his side. "You monster!"

"Monster?" the stallion said. "Little ol' me?" He proceeded to thrust Blade off in a direction away from the twins, who were cowering in fear.

"Mom!" Hope cried, starting to rush over to where Blade was flung. She crouched down to her mom, who was breathing heavily in weariness.

"Get..." she panted, "away from here... Go... to... the Everfree..."

"Everfree?" Hope asked, a hint of worry in her voice. "T- That dangerous forest you told us never to go into?"

"G-go... t-to protect them... find... your father... Don't... let the prophecy fail..."

"Find... Dad?"

"I could use a little help over here!" Silver Streak shouted at them, cowering from the approaching stallion.

Hope never paid attention to her brother. Instead, she focused thoroughly on her mother. "Mom... is Dad in the Everfree Forest?"

She never got a response when Blade shot a beam of magic from her horn, flying past her and straight toward her brother, who vanished instantly when it hit him.

The stallion growled. "You'll regret doing that, Blade Runner!" he shouted. "Where did you send it?!"

She again didn't respond when her horn glowed once more and struck Hope, and in an instant, she vanished as well.





Silver was dazed when the spell hit him. The world around him swirled and twisted, causing his eyesight to become disoriented. And while the world around him stopped spinning, it still took his eyesight time to adjust.

When it finally did reside, a flash right next to him erupted, causing his sister to land on the ground where the light had flashed.

"Hope?" he said, rushing to his side.

"Silver...?" she asked, trying to pinpoint his location. "Why is the world spinning?"

"Don't worry, it'll pass."

She shook her head, and soon enough, she was looking fine. "Where are we?" she asked after getting a look around.

"I don't know..." Silver replied. "I think Mom might've teleported us somewhere. It doesn't look familiar..."

Hope continued to look around her. "I think this is Ponyville."

Silver tuned to her. "What makes you say that?"

"This building," she said, pointing to the building that they were behind, "looks like it's from Ponyville. Since it's the closest town in comparison to where we live and since teleportation uses too much magic for long distances, it's only reasonable that Mom sent us here."

Silver stared blankly at her. "Nerd," he said, earning himself a snicker.

Hope, however, was not amused and just rolled her eyes. "You just didn't think about it."

"And you just thought too much about it."

"Whatever. Just admit that I'm smarter than you."

"You have no clear proof of that."

"What about our last exam that Mom gave us? Is that not proof enough?"

"Just because you finished before me after 'claiming' to have checked it over three times does not make you smarter."

"I got a perfect on that test when you didn't even finish."

"The test was unfair! It had none of the material that Mom discussed."

"Then how did I get a perfect on it?"

"You cheated. Simple as that. You unicorns and your magic."

"You're just jealous that I can do this-" She proceeded to lift several leaves and wave them in her brother's face."-and you can't."

"Why would I want to have magic when I can just fly?" He demonstrated by flapping his wings repeatedly until he lifted off the ground, floating several feet in the air above his sister. "Can't beat that, huh?"

She rolled her eyes and set down the leaves. "Pegasai..."

Silver set his hooved back on the ground. "Unicorns..."

They both stood away from each other in fake-pouty silence for several minutes before Silver realized that Hope was walking away. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"To find Dad," she replied, refusing to turn around.

"Dad? What do you mean? We don't have a clue to where he is."

"The Everfree Forest."

"Huh?"

"That's where he is."

"What do you mean? How do you know that?"

"Mom told me--right before she teleported us here."

"But... shouldn't we go back to help her?"

Hope stayed silent and continued walking forward.

"Hope?" Silver started to walk toward his twin, both confused to why she wasn't answering and to her sudden attitude. She hadn't acted like this before. "Hope... Shouldn't we help Mom?"

As Silver continues to ask that question, Hope continued ignoring it. One thought was on her mind currently. Dad. She continued walking in a single direction--the direction of the Everfree Forest.