Silver leaned in and gently kissed little Twilight. "How ironic that the child of Twilight would have a different name. Wait here, little daughter. I have to go." She turned away and strode from the room purposefully, shedding her saddlebag as she went.
Fast was there, approaching the room. "Hey, you want any help with them?"
Silver moved to her swiftly and kissed her on the cheek. "Take care of her." Then she was striding past without a pause.
"Her?" Fast turned in place. "You mean both of them, right? Silver?"
Silver blinked between spaces and appeared on the ground floor, moving swiftly for a cabinet that held many little things, including the ring they had requested of her.
"Put that down." It was Night Watch, stepping towards her lightly. "What happened?"
Silver bared her teeth for a moment. "I'm facing my past. You can't come with me. They'll hurt him. I'd rather die a thousand times than be the reason he comes to harm." She used her own magic to set the ring down on her horn, the force faltering as it slid into place. She could barely get it into place with a final shove, her magic sealed, at least her unicorn magic. "They claim they're still ponies..."
Night's wings spread wide. "No pony would do half the things you already know they've done."
Silver smiled, hints of sadness showing through her features. "I have to make them see that. I won't give up my values, or let them hurt him."
She leaned in to touch noses but Night recoiled. "You can try to stop me, but I will be there." She spread her wings and took rapid flight from the castle, vanishing from sight.
Silver shook her head slowly. "I'd hope you would be." She smiled to herself then let out a slow breath, wind rushing from her as she deflated before she drew it all back in, rising to her full height and trotting with her head held up high. She marched through town as if to her own execution, to the smiling faces of the inhabitants, who had no idea what she went to face.
"Oh, Princess Silver Stars. Can I trouble you for a moment?" Silver looked up to see a smiling Mayor Mare. "I was hoping for a few signatures for a few vital papers, if you can spare the time, your majesty?"
Silver paused a moment. "Have we ever really talked before?"
The mayor looked dumbfounded by the question. "Oh, well, I suppose not."
Silver reached out a hoof and the mayor flinched back. Silver flinched with her, that moment of pain a lash across her psyche, but she reached slowly and put a leg over Mayor Mare, drawing her close. "We need to. I shouldn't live in your town without knowing you. I have to go, I'm sorry." She released the stunned dignitary, and walked onwards with new resolve.
She let her eyes wander. The Cakes were moving an order. Rarity was working on a dress in her window. The vendors were offering their wares, and a group of ponies seemed to be making some kind of art fresco. It was all... lovely. They didn't deserve to become the center point of a terrorist strike, which she feared could become the case if she made a scene or didn't show up. How far would those that hated what she represented stoop to, while claiming to defend virtue?
Silver shook the thoughts from her head as the house came into view. It wasn't very large, or assuming, or remarkable in any way. She strode to it as she realized she just walked through town with the horn blocker on, and not a pony had noticed. Figured... She smiled a little, then reached for the handle with her mouth before pausing, remembering a moment long ago. She raised a hoof and gently brushed the handle to find some slick moisture coming off.
It was drugged, just like the first changeling she found out was a changeling had done. She sat on her haunches and worked the knob between two hooves, getting it open without knocking herself out. As the door swung inwards on quiet hinges, she called out, "Hello? I've come, as you asked." She rose to her hooves and stepped inside.
The door slapped just behind her, smacking her tail and rump and causing her to jump despite herself. "A-alright, we're alone now. Can we talk?"
A skinny stallion, several inches shorter than Silver, stepped out. "No fire and brimstone? No shield, threats, and violence at the ready? Are you losing your touch?"
Silver looked over the stallion and his bright purple fur and dirty orange mane and tail. "You have... issues with me. Will you tell them to me? Let him go. He has done nothing wrong. He is innocent."
He circled as he approached, though the motion paused as he reached the wall to her right. "He's fine. We're not monsters. Not like you, or her. If you're waiting for a chance to snatch him up, forget it. He's not here. You're not a pony, just trying to pretend. Wearing a mask and playing the part, poorly."
Silver took a slow step into the house. "What did I do wrong? If you know my history, you know I want to do the right thing."
"The right thing? Fine, leave." He bared his flat teeth a moment in a terrible sneer. "Go away."
Silver shook her head slowly. "I'm tied to this world. You call me a human, but I couldn't even say how much of me can call myself that, anymore."
He pointed a hoof suddenly to a faint tracing of an X on the ground. "Stand there. You're dangerous. We have to immobilize you."
Silver looked to the mark. "Will you talk to me then? Will you at least offer a hoof in the chance of friendship?"
He thrust his hoof at the mark. "Stand. Talking sweet won't get your little spawn back after."
Silver let out a slow breath as she advanced. The floor gave way beneath her an inch, and the roof collapsed on her in a snare. Her midsection around her wings was suddenly tightly bound in a thick band of leather. She wouldn't be able to fly, but her hooves were still free. Did they not know of their power? "At least tell me what I did wrong, to bring up such hatred in ponies. Ponies shouldn't hate."
His expression shifted a little, melting from anger to a bit of sadness. "No... They shouldn't. The more of your past we unearth, the more crimes you escaped from with barely punishment at all. You've corrupted our highest leaders, our newest leaders, and even our most distant leaders. You have them all wrapped around your hoof, willing to banish any trouble you bring on yourself."
He moved around her. As she tried to turn he hissed quickly, "Stop! Stay where you are." She stopped turning, allowing him to move behind her. She could hear his slow steps. It became a little darker. Had he drawn the blinds? The steps came closer to her flank. "Look at you. You're a walking sex symbol. How much did you beg for that?"
Silver twitched an ear back towards him. "Do you want the whole story?"
"Yes! All of it. Confess." His voice had a frantic tone, almost hysterical.
Silver nodded slowly. "After I attempted to end my own life--"
"Disgusting."
"Luna had saved me, and owned me as a result. I was broken and shattered, and she gave me her blood, and drew me into her world to give me a new strength."
She winced as he suddenly struck her on the flank. "You're an outsider, a human! You had no right being given that gift. Or being... the first lunar unicorn. There are so many more worthy unicorns out there. Don't you have any remorse?"
Silver nodded softly. "There were others. Others who would probably serve better, but she took me. I didn't ask, but I did accept it. It's my responsibility now. I accept that."
He lashed out at her other flank, making her wobble a step from the blow. "And how seriously did you take that position? You couldn't even remain a lunar unicorn for more than a few months. You thirsted for power! You hungered for the crown!"
She turned her head, earning her a sudden hoof against her snout, making her vision swim in pain.
"Remain forward! You'll follow your commands if you want him safe. Don't think you can overcome me. I'm nopony at all... if I don't report in, they'll assume the worst, and you don't want that, do you?" He huffed loudly. "Continue. Tell me how you became a princess when so many others are passed over."
Silver wondered if she was doing the right thing, but nodded despite it. "I was captured by a rogue unicorn, taken to be sold off, we think. Twilight came in a pure rage. She annihilated everything with magic, me included. She killed me." A smirk touched her lips. "Not the last time I'd experience it... Celestia said I had died just right. I was full of magic from several places... Even my child, my foal, he was part of that magic, burning inside of me."
"You sacrificed your own kin for power!" He drove a hoof into her ribs, forcing the air from her in a painful wheeze.
"No! I wept for days. I didn't want that... I really didn't... He's still alive. I found a way, with Twilight. We found a way..." She choked for air, struggling to catch up as he circled around to be in front of her. "I mean it!"
He scowled at her. "I'm sure you do. We've skipped a portion of your sin. You were a stallion, a colt, when you were named Luna's ward. How did you come to be a mare, then a princess? For a time you were all but named quietly dead. We had to search quite hard to find your trail, outside."
Silver slowly sat down. "I was named dangerous, after defending myself from three attackers. One died. Twilight said I was unbalanced, Celestia had the cure."
"Celestia always has the cure." He smiled. "What was it?"
Silver put a hoof on her chest. "They put me on a cold table, and she, uh, Twilight... She removed my... They worked together, and made a mare of me, hoping it would make me kinder."
He raised a brow high. "And did it work, worker of sin? You went on to seduce Twilight Sparkle through some trick of magic, became heavy with her foal, and used it to become a princess!" He lashed out at her, striking her dead center in her snout. She cried out in pain as blood began to flow from her injured nose. "Admit it! Confess!"
Silver looked to the stallion, tears stinging at her eyes. "I could have simply died then. Don't think I haven't considered that. But I made a promise, to myself, later to Luna. Suicide is a sin I won't repeat. Celestia had the answer to not die, and I didn't." She spat out blood in a runny spot on the ground. "I can't take that back, and my child... he lives. I'm--"
He brought a hoof in suddenly, punching her in the guts with a terrible fit of fresh pain. "You should have just taken the drug. My superiors might have been kinder. Sinner, they'll hear every word you said. Every silver lie. Every twitch in your ill-deserved body. Human, you make me sick to look at you, knowing there's no mare in there, just an alien, hiding among us."