I never knew about love, and you showed me that.
The twins continued moving toward the forest. Silver kept trying to talk to his sister about turning back, but Hope never gave a response.
"Why are you ignoring me?" he pestered on. "Mom need our help!"
Hope growled. "I highly doubt that," she spat back.
"What do you mean? You saw the barrier that kept us safe. Mom had that up all night for us, didn't she? She's exhausted! How can you expect her to survive against that maniac?"
Hope suddenly turned back to her brother. "You don't get it, do you?"
Silver flinched. "G- Get what...?"
"Mom lied to us!"
"S- She did?"
"Yes! She said our father had died a few weeks after we were born! And now, that maniac is the only reason we know that he's still out there, and I bet that if he hadn't shown up, we'd still think Dad was dead!"
Silver's eyes darted from side to side. "I- I didn't think about that..."
"And that's probably not the only thing she lied to us about. If you think about it, what was our mom like before she met Dad? She never told us about her, only dad. Why? Is there something she was hiding from us? Something about her that she never wanted us to know?" Hope growled again. "I bet that whatever her secrets were, she doesn't want us there."
Hope turned and walked to the forest again. "So I'll find out the truth somewhere else. From Dad if I must."
Silver stood up and darted after her. "But we don't know where in the forest Dad could be. What if he was in some small hut that nopony knows about? How are we going to find him?"
Hope turned back to Silver again. "That's where you come in."
He froze in place. "Wh- What?"
"You're a pegasus, meaning you can fly above the tree line. If Dad was in a hut, or anywhere in the woods in general, there'd be some markings where some trees may or may not be cut down. Or, if there was a structure already built there, it might show up somewhere in the forest. If you fly up above the trees and find someplace where he might have settled down in there, we might just find him!"
Silver blinked before thinking about her words. "That seems like it could work..."
"And..." Hope continued, "if we don't happen to find any clearing or hut, we can always look for the Castle of the Two Sisters."
"The Castle of the what?"
"Two Pony Sisters. Didn't you pay attention when Mom was giving us that lesson about Early Equestrian History?"
"Nope."
Hope facehoofed. "The Castle of the Two Sisters, also known to some as 'Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters', was Celestia and Luna's old castle before Celestia was forced to banish her sister to the moon."
"Their old castle?"
Hope nodded. "There were several rumors to why she had to leave, but none knew the truth, so they remain that way. Over time, the castle has become extremely old, dusty and even began falling apart. It wasn't until recent years that six ponies came once again visited the place in order to free Luna from her banishment."
"Those six ponies are the 'Element Bearers', correct?" Silver asked.
Hope stared at him strangely. "I thought you weren't listening when Mom was giving us our lessons."
"Not for boring stuff like history."
Hope let out a small chuckle before continuing. "Yes, they are known as the 'Element bearers'. These six ponies occasionally went back to the castle, restoring it piece by piece and making it look better. However, as far as Mom told us, I don't know if they've been there anytime recent. The building may be looking worse than what we expect."
"But the building might still be there, right?"
"Right! And if we can't find what may seem like a place he'd be, we go there and hope to see our Dad there! And if he's not, we check the air around the castle and go from there."
Silver nodded. "Sound's like a plan to me! When do we get to the forest?"
Hope turned her head around again. "It's right over there," she said, pointing a hoof. Silver followed the direction and saw a dense forest in front of them. It was strange... before he didn't feel anything. But now that he looked at the forest, it all seemed... wrong... twisted and sick. It was no wonder that they were told not to go into the forest. That place just feels wrong when you look at it.
"That's the Everfree forest?"
Hope nodded. "It's the only forest that's the closest to Ponyville. It has to be it. It even... feels creepy."
"I feel that too..." Silver admitted.
The two of them both felt the urge to leave. Whatever was in that forest... it wasn't natural. Both of them could tell.
"M- Maybe we shouldn't do this..." Silver said, starting to turn around. "W- We can always go back home and help Mom..."
As soon as he said that though Hope let out a loud huff and grabbed his tail, pulling him towards the forest as she walked over to it. "We've come this far, Silver. I'm not going to stop now when Dad is so close!" She let go of his tail when they were at the edge of the forest. Now, you fly up and try to spot somewhere where Dad might be."
He groaned. "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes," she said without hesitation. "Now fly up there."
He huffed. "Fine..." he said, standing to his hooves. "I'll do I, but on one condition."
Hope rolled her eyes. "Name it."
"If we don't find Dad, or even if or when we don't see a good place where he might be, we go back to help Mom immediately."
Hope sighed roughly. "Fine. We don't find a place where he might be--"
"And what I mean by that is if we do find a place, if we don't find another after that," Silver interrupted. "We'll look, maybe find a place and scope it out. If we do not find one the first time, or any time after that, we go back to Mom."
Hope sighed. "I know, I got that before you explained it. Will you just fly up there already?"
Silver blinked and growled a bit to himself. "Alright, alright.." he pouted, flapping his wings and beginning to soar just above the tree line. He looked around the forest top, and it wasn't hard to spot a big gray castle just poking out somewhere far along.
He stared at it for a good while, and he thought about telling Hope or not. Should he reveal this to her? His Mom did seem to want to get them away from the stallion... and it seemed like no surprise. He had reduced their entire house to rubble, after all. But it was still a danger for her to be doing that alone.. But what could they do? Maybe Hope was right and Mom couldn't be trusted at all... If that was the case, then all he'd have to say would be...
"I see a castle."