Silver woke up feeling safe and good. He was surrounded by dozing ponies. Twilight and Night and Rough and their little foals were all in a loose pile, sharing warmth, and Silver couldn't think of a happier place to be. Sure, Twilight had been slightly cross when she saw both he and Night return as earth ponies, but that smoothed over quickly enough, and the rest of the evening had been well spent.
He wasn't an earth pony anymore. Twilight had insisted she be allowed to return him to normal, so there he was, in all his full alicorn glory, and Night was her lovely lunar pegasus self. He rose carefully to his hooves, earning a little murmur from the filly he had almost looked like. "Shh, Clear Twilight, don't wake your mothers." He nuzzled the filly ever-so-gently and she gave a happy coo.
Quietly creeping across the room, Silver approached one of the windows and ducked his head through the cloth to see outside, and almost wished he hadn't. The smell of burning assaulted his nose. Dark plumes rose up from all around Ponyville. His heart kicked into high gear as he felt the balance of magic within him shift towards the front on its own, powering his heart and lungs for fight or flight. Refusing to assume anything, he began to survey the scene more carefully. The whole town wasn't on fire. It seemed only four buildings were actually alight, but they were some of the larger ones, like the town hall.
As he took it in, a sudden thin beam came down from high above and struck the clocktower. There was no explosion, nor did the ground shudder, it just began to burn. Silver recoiled, and craned his neck to look up towards the source. Silver. The entire sky was filled with smooth silvery metal in unending sheets and panels. What part would be responsible for such deadly beams, he couldn't say, but the huge silver platform seemed the obvious source of these attacks.
"Twilight, Night, Rough!" He spun away from the sight. "Ponyville is under attack. We have to move!" It was their town. It was their responsibility.
Night sprang to her hooves instantly, much to Morning Glory's displeasure and the little colt began to wail. The wailing was infectious and Clear Twilight joined in the harmony. Together they were quite an alarm bell and the entire room was roused shortly.
Twilight kissed both foals before whisking them away with magic. "Fast can babysit. Status report?"
Night was already peeking out the window. "Five fires, three contained. Local response is active. Six fires." She twisted around to look upwards as Silver had done. "Likely source, unknown in nature, appears metallic. Attacking the fires, unlikely to be effective."
Twilight charged up and shoved her head through to see what Night was seeing. Rough shook himself before moving for his armor, starting to get dressed hastily. Silver gave a helping hoof with his magic, then donned his own cloak and crown. "Most of us can fly, but is flying at something that large and hostile the best course of action?"
"They're burning Ponyville!" Twilight spun back around. "We are going up there, now."
The curtains suddenly flew inwards and fell off their holding bar as Rainbow Dash burst through them. "Hey, Twi! Oh good, you're awake. Are you seeing this? Come on!"
With a firm nod, Twilight took to the air and waved for Night and Silver to follow her. "Let's go see what that big silver thing wants."
All four launched from the window into the morning air, tainted as it was with distant smoke. Silver turned mid-air to face Rough Tumble. "Protect the castle and those in it. Keep my foals safe." Sure, Fast was with them, but there was no such thing as too many. As Rough saluted, Silver wheeled around in the air and soared to catch up with the others.
They could see a flicker of red in a line going right through them and barely banked out of the way before it became a solid blazing rod of intense heat. They had been noticed, and in an unkind way. "Way too slow for me," taunted Rainbow Dash with a confident sneer.
Night Watch looked pensive a moment. "40% chance of continuing pattern, 30% chance of increasing spread and tempo. 20% chance of alternative attack."
Twilight frowned at the huge silvery object. "Leave Ponyville alone!" She let loose a brilliant ray of magic along its surface, leaving a little gouge on its formerly smooth surface. Several flickering bands painted across Twilight's position from various angles, impossible to dodge. She exploded into flames just before it crashed down on her and she flew threw it with a primal scream of fury. She was an angered goddess, and for just a moment, Silver never felt more in love with her.
Bringing his mind back to the present, Silver made a wide pattern. "Spread out, don't let it trap us together." He wished he had learned some fire protect... wait... He dug out his book and began flipping through it frantically in his magic, pulling out the first spell he had ever made, the fireball, and quickly checking his reference. Yes... that should work, maybe?
While he had been conducting hasty research, a red beam flickered around him, and all became pain and heat. He played the magic quickly, drawing that heat and channeling it, but not playing the notes to create any heat. There was plenty of heat to gather from. He emerged from the line, mildly singed, but alive, and wielding a dangerous ball of fire. He stuffed his crispy book away, thankful it hadn't burst into ash.
Night and Rainbow began performing an aerial ballet of sorts, wheeling and dancing around one another as lines flared around them, trying to catch either, but the two were proving fast and in sync with one another's thoughts, to the point of grabbing one another to suddenly fly apart with the momentum as half a dozen lines flared where they used to be.
The great silver thing in the sky was drawing closer. As they flew towards it, it was still coming towards them. Little fragments of its silvery body detached and spread metallic wings. Jets of flame propelled them as they began to rapidly form wings and each wing selected one of the approaching ponies to intercept.
Rainbow snorted at them. "What is this, paper airplanes? I'm so scared!" Her cockiness was short-lived as the first wing came into range of her and began letting lose a barrage of even tinier slivers in a hailstorm of sharpened metal fragments.
Silver hurled his ball of flame at the wing approaching him and violently detonated it in the center of the metal mass. As the flames died down, the wing hurtled towards the ground, a partially melted pile of slag.
Twilight snapped her wings out wide as a shield popped into being around her, deflecting the razor-sharp shrapnel that rained down on her. She seemed to gather all the ammunition together into one big ball and sent it back with terrific force back at the collection of flyers, shredding half of them and a few in the wing following after Night Watch.
Night Watch gave a hasty salute before she wheeled, She had a collection of painful-looking slices along her barrel, but flew despite it, crashing into the very wing that followed her. Her teeth plunged through metal as her hooves lashed out, denting and breaking. She emerged, cut and bleeding, but victorious.
Rainbow cheered and whooped as she began to perform tricks the likes of which would send any lesser pegasus into a blackout from the G-forces she put on herself. She didn't attack, and the wing that followed her swelled in size, which only seemed to encourage her into her laughing daredevil flight of utter abandon.
"Silver," barked Twilight as she turned to him. "Fire, now."
He began to channel a new fireball, but it was yanked from him almost the moment it began to form. She wrapped it around herself and burst into flame. "More!" She took off flying as Silver channeled more and more heat towards her. A phoenix in equine form, Twilight crashed into Rainbow's wing. They attempted to fire on her, but metal melted and fell when it came close to her. The flyers themselves deformed and broke as she flew through them, destroying the collection with a mighty roar. "Release!" Silver obeyed her and let go of the containing magic. Fire exploded away from Twilight in all directions, catching the remaining flyers. All was fire and destruction and falling. Twilight remained, panting, but smiling.
The silver platform shimmered softly as an electrical pulse ran along its surface. The gouges Twilight had left on it mended with the electrical pulse, and the metal lost to make the flyers seemed to return. All of their work, undone. Rather than release a new wave of flyers or red beams of heat, instead a small hatch opened, and a little platform extended from it with a guard rail.
Night Watch tilted her head. "60% chance we are being invited inside. 75% chance that is a trap."
Rainbow banked towards it. "Then let's not keep them waiting!"
Silver nodded. "I don't think we can defeat it the way we're doing it. Maybe they're done attacking." He glanced down to see that several of the fires looked under control. The town would recover if they weren't being constantly pelted with flame rays. "Let's see what they want."
Twilight shook off the flame that clung to her. "Let's go. Everypony ready?" They all nodded, and flew in together.
The platform was just large enough to hold all four comfortably. The entrance itself was a dark hole with a ladder leading into the guts of the thing. Twilight snorted softly. "Thanks, but I think we'll fly if it's all the same."
Rainbow grinned. "Took the words right out of my mouth, egghead." She trotted to the end of the platform and peeked down into the darkness before spreading her wings and diving out of sight.
Night moved to go next, but her movements were slow, and she wobbled along the way. Silver frowned. "Stop!" He gestured to Twilight. "Send her home. She's hurt, badly."
Night's eyes widened. "Don't you dare! I'm not letting you go off again without me. Never." She spread her wings and bared her fangs. "If you do this, I'll never forgive you."
Twilight hesitated, glancing between the two before she trotted past Night and hopped into the shaft.
If Silver wanted to send her home, he'd have to do it himself. He wrapped his wings around her. "You're hurt. Are you sure? If you want to stay, I'll respect that, and you. You always have my respect, Night Watch." Night hugged him back briefly, then turned away with a toss of her soft mane. She threw herself into the laddered shaft as her reply.
Silver sighed softly before trotting up to join them. As he stepped across the threshold, his vision swam. All three pieces he wore, the silvered necklace, the iron shoes, and even the bejeweled ring between his legs felt hot and cold at once. He could feel his internal network of magic go wild. He fell. He tried to grab for the ladder, but it was going by too quickly, he only banged a hoof against it as everything span out of control. He couldn't even tell what direction he was falling anymore.