Twilight and Silver walked side-by-side down the hallway towards Celestia's chambers. They moved in companionable silence. The presence of the other was comforting, and there was little to immediately say, so they didn't, and neither felt awkward or demanded of by the other, which made it all the better.
Silver started as Twilight suddenly skipped five feet ahead in a short teleportation. A ring slid onto her horn. A magic blocker? She considered reaching for one of her other forms of magic immediately, but held herself back, instead making a show of attempting to use magic despite it and sputtering around the ring.
"Don't worry, Silver, I--" The wall beside Twilight swung open to reveal a large unicorn stallion that plowed into Twilight, interrupting her speech and driving her into the opposing wall with a loud grunt of pain.
Silver took a step towards the stallion. "Don't treat Twilight that way. She's rescued you enough times."
The stallion scowled. "Yeah." He smiled, or at least bared his teeth, revealing he had another blocking ring equipped, held there at the ready.
Twilight skipped again, popping back to her feet a few feet away. "You back away from Silver and leave us alone! You won't get me with that."
"Think you're so smart. Why haven't you jumped further, your highness?"
Twilight looked like she hadn't thought of that, and tried to jump further only to skip a few feet again with a dazed expression. "W-what..."
The confusion was apparently what the stallion was waiting for. He rushed her and slammed the ring down on her horn, blocking her. "Now stay still. We're going on a trip." He nudged her even as she recovered, getting both alicorns to stand side-by-side. He plucked up the ring that had failed to drop on Twilight earlier and tucked it in his clothing. "Have a nice trip." He turned away and went for the secret door as the world warped around the both of them, and they vanished, to appear somewhere else.
Silver knew this feeling. She was tied by her hooves to the floor, wide-stanced and available. The floor felt familiar. The space felt familiar... Could it really be that same warehouse? "Carrot Plate?"
A tear-stained mare emerged from the darkness. "This wasn't my idea." She jolted immediately and cried out, fresh tears escaping her. "Are you ready to be punished?!"
Silver stiffened, her mind whirring quickly. Someone was using Carrot Plate to get at her, and forcing her to act the villain. Did they want her punished that badly? Or was this entirely to get at herself? Silver relaxed slowly. Carrot Plate didn't deserve her anger. "Carrot... Do what you need to do."
"W-what?" She glanced around like a deer caught in headlights. "This isn't how you're supposed to act!" She jolted and cried out with a squeal. "I'm doing everything right! Stop!"
Silver flashed her fangs in anger. What sort of monster was behind this? Her thoughts were interrupted as Carrot brought down a switch on her flank. It was more surprising than painful, but Silver made a noise as if it hurt, hoping to convince whoever was behind it.
Carrot sniffled before she drew back and brought it down all the harder. "You ruined my life!"
Silver squealed in pain, hoping in pony perception to cover her lousy acting as her eyes darted around, looking into the darkness with her slit eyes.
"This time, I'm ready for you."
Ready? She glanced back at Carrot as she dropped the switch and circled around Silver's back. "You wouldn't be a good colt for me before. I'll be a good one for you now."
W-what? Silver scowled. "No. Stop this. If you want to talk to me, do it directly. Carrot doesn't deserve this on her conscience."
Carrot went stiff. "No no no! You're--" She threw her head back and howled in agony. "Stop it! Stop acting out of script!" She suddenly threw herself atop Silver, hugging her around the barrel and sliding up into place. It wasn't as Silver feared at first. No spell had been cast on her, she simply wore a marital aid to let her act the part of a colt. It was still incredibly wrong. "Please, just stop it. Act along. Please. It hurts so bad."
Silver licked over her lips as she considered before she shook her head. She marshalled power into her hooves and slammed them down to the ground with a thunderous clap. The binding at her hooves snapped violently, and she was free. She rolled over suddenly, pinning Carrot to the floor. She could see it, a collar wrapped around Carrot's neck, and she sank her teeth into it, letting her stopped up energy rush into it as she clenched her jaws, destroying the larger bulge that she assumed was its control panel or shock device.
Carrot curled and whimpered in fear. "Please... don't hurt me..."
Silver spat out the collar to the side. "Carrot, I forgave you a long time ago. I'm going to get you out of this."
Carrot cracked open an eye. "Are you... Oh thank Celestia! The rumors weren't lies!" She hugged Silver tightly, so tightly that when she stood up, she still had Carrot attached to her.
Silver moved for the door of the warehouse. "Is this literally the same warehouse?"
Carrot nodded her head shakily. "I-I think so..."
Silver tried to wrap her magic around the door to open it, but the blocker was still there. "Carrot, take off my ring." Silver tilted her head to where Carrot could see the ring.
Carrot slipped to the ground and stood up, shaking like a leaf. She grabbed the ring in her teeth and slowly pulled it off. Silver could see her own horn had a ring, but it looked welded on and she scowled. "How long have they had you?"
New tears began to well up in Carrot's eyes. "Please save me..."
Silver nodded and threw open the warehouse door only for cold wind laden with snow and icicles to wash over the both. A frigid fist of ice slammed into Silver's chest and knocked her into a shelf, to tumble over it and come down with a crash. From the darkness stepped a pony dressed in dark clothing that obscured most of her form, making her hard to identify at best. "Stop right there."
Carrot squealed in terror and dived to the side, where she quivered and shook with abject terror.
Silver fueled her core and took flight in a streak of silver as the next lash of cold came past her. "You are attacking a prince of the land."
The pony shook her head slowly. "Equestria has no alicorn prince. Go back where you came from, human. Go and take your chaos with you." Her horn, though wrapped in cloth, glowed with muffled light as the temperature in the warehouse began to plummet at a dizzying rate that had Carrot sobbing in terror.
Silver wove her favorite horn symbol, of heat gathering, and wreathed herself in warmth as she soared towards the gate, moving to flee the building to wider fighting quarters.
With a bright flash, the door froze over abruptly, forcing Silver to pull up and run along the wall to avoid slamming into it before she flipped back to her wings and did a circle. The pony walked through the sheet of ice as if it weren't there. "You're not welcome. You've made a lot of enemies."
Silver snorted loudly. "I've faced eldritch horrors the likes of which scared Luna away. One cold-wielding unicorn isn't enough to put the fear in me." She spun in mid-air to face the stranger. "You are a cruel unicorn, failing to hurt me, but killing another of your kind. Stop this."
The stranger glanced over at the form of Carrot Plate. Snow and frost flecked off of her shivering form. She was barely moving. "Nice try." She brought up a hoof and a giant hand of ice formed. "You like hands, don't you? Try this on for size." It grasped for Silver, only to be met with a silvery hand of her own. They clasped and wrestled fiercely in the air while Silver landed lightly. "Hmm, good at hands, are we? But how about... hooves."
Without the hand vanishing, a hoof of ice slammed down towards Silver. She leaped to the side as it crashed into the ground, pounding the tiles to dust. Playing defensive was getting nowhere in a hurry. Watching Carrot Plate die slowly wasn't sitting well with her either. Silver played her first magic, fire roaring to life above her head and gathering power swiftly. "Last chance. If you let her go, all is forgiven."
A brow raised from the heavy clothes. "I will not join your herd, pervert. I'd sooner roast."
"As you wish." Silver threw the ball at her with a flick of magic, but kept it contained. She was far too dangerous a foe to assume the ball would hit. Cold air licked at the fire, but the same containment protected it from the cold.
"Clever," she said before she vanished, appearing just beside Silver. "Futile." She lashed out a hoof wreathed in frost and knocked Silver back a few steps. Silver grunted but kept her fireball steady, curving it sharply towards the unicorn even as she wreathed herself in her offensive shield.
Seeing Carrot go still, Silver abandoned all thoughts of delay or morality. With shield raised firmly, she charged at the unicorn.
That seemed to instill some measure of fear in her. "You maniac!" She skipped back with her magic, teleporting away almost blindly to keep away from Silver and her deadly bubble. "I've read about your magic, monster."
"You should read less, and watch more." Silver's fireball crashed into her side, and she let go of the force around it. It exploded with all the violent intensity of pure fire itself, and she screamed in agony. She fell to her knees, tried to stand up, and fell again, scorched everywhere. But the room wasn't getting warmer, it was growing colder. "What are you doing? You lost."
"I'll take you with me," she weakly breathed out, pawing at the ground.
Silver forgot her and rushed for Carrot Plate, gathering her up in magic and jumping just past the ice sheet with a quick twist of magic. With fast spell-weaving, warmth was called to gently warm Carrot as Silver turned back to the ice wall, scowling at it and the ice mage behind it. Should she go back in and face her?
She wanted answers... She jumped back inside and found it was colder than her warmth sphere could hope to repel. Cold nipped fiercely at her as she looked around quickly. "Damn stubborn mare. Don't kill yourself. I'm not here to do anything to you." There was no spoken reply. Silver found her body, buried in snow and ice. Was she dead? Silver didn't know, so simply cut her free as quickly as she could and lifted her gently.
She skipped out, puffing out steam in her breath from the chill. The hostile ice mage she carried along with the fallen Carrot Plate. She wondered where Twilight had gone, but she had to get those two up to the castle, and she flew swift and strong to make that happen, to save two lives, and maybe get some answers.