Chapter 5: Reunion
Her mane whistled in the wind as Major Silver Rush glided through the air. She was currently flying high above the countryside, the houses and farms looking like small dots from her perspective. She had left Canterlot earlier that day on a special assignment to Ponyville. Her saddlebags were filled to the brim with tools and gadgets from the Canterlot armory; she was prepared for practically everything.
Ahh, this fresh air is great; always nice to fly out of the big city. Silver observed a few clouds lazily drifting across the sky in her general direction. Her right wing dipped as she gradually banked out of the way of one of the clouds. She adjusted herself and continued on towards Ponyville.
A flight from Canterlot to Ponyville would usually take an hour or two. Contrary to what she was supposed to be doing, flying full speed for the small town, Silver Rush was lazily gliding along the currents of warm air. Because of her position in the royal guard, she rarely was able to fly outside of Canterlot. So flying all the way to Ponyville was quite the treat.
Silver could see Ponyville steadily growing larger as she approached. It wasn't nearly as big as Canterlot, but she could understand why ponies would live here. The quiet, calm, fresh air. Mmm...It's so nice here. Hey, is that a rainbow? I didn't see any scheduled on Ponyville's weather calendar.
High above the edge of town, Silver could see a rainbow, or what she thought was a rainbow in the sky. The odd thing was that the rainbow was not stationary. Curious, Silver picked up a bit of speed and flew for the shimmering light. As she drew closer, Silver could see that is was an actual pony and not a rainbow.
Wow, that’s a neat trick. Hmm, I wonder how she gets the colors to continuously change. Silver came to a hover a few hundred meters from the swirling pegasi, observing the aerial acrobatics. The pegasus was performing a series of spirals through the clouds around her. Oh, that's probably how she does it: collecting water from the clouds.
She wasn't the only one watching the show however. Hovering at roughly the same altitude was another pony above the Everfree Forest. Silver took notice of the other pegasus.
Black? That’s not a natural color. Silver slowly started gliding to the other spectator, the hairs on her neck stiffening. As she got closer, Silver could see the pegasus was glowing. A cold wave traveled down her spine as the black object quickly accelerated towards the shining rainbow of colors.
"Hey! Stop right there!" Silver yelled out at the menacing figure. Without thinking she bolted right after it.
A dark aura started to glow around the shadow as it gained speed, vaguely resembling the pegasus it was charging. Silver rush beat her wings as fast as she could, planning to intercept the shadow before it collided with the performer. It was fast, she was faster. Silver barreled into the shadow right before it hit the other pegasus. The collision sent out a huge shock wave that knocked the performer into a spiral towards the ground while Silver grappled with the shadow as they fell towards the forest.
"Ack! Hold still!" She yelled. In the midst of the confusion everything ground to a halt. Silver was hanging upside down frantically trying to figure out why they had stopped moving. It wasn't just them that had stopped, everything had stopped moving. The falling performer had frozen in the sky as had Silver's saddlebags which had fallen off.
The shadow pony looked her straight in the eyes and spoke in a deep, unnatural voice. "You know not what you are interfering with. The events of your undoing have already been set in motion; you are only delaying the inevitable." The shadow then phased out of Silver's immovable grasp and flew a few feet away. "Equestria will burn in eternal chaos once again." Time suddenly resumed without so much as a flash of warning and Silver struggled to right herself.
"What the fuck!?" Silver yelled out in astonishment. She quickly flipped head over hooves and righted herself. Silver slowed her decent and came to a stop directly above the tree line before flying straight back up into the sky. Looking around, Silver couldn't see the shadow pony anywhere.
"Well this can't be good," she muttered to herself. Silver flew over to a nearby tree and picked up her saddlebags which had fallen off during the brief struggle. There was a loud beeping coming from the right bag. She reached in with a hoof and brought out a small golden compass. The compass was not used for telling north from south but instead was enchanted to show the strongest source of magic from its current position. The compass was spinning wildly.
Silver put her saddlebags back on and flew up higher, still holding the compass in her right hoof. After climbing a few hundred feet the needle had stopped spinning and was now steadily pointing towards Ponyville. Silver followed the arrow towards the small town.
Silver sighed. "Okay this is going nowhere." She had been flying back and forth over Ponyville for around three hours now. Every time it looked like she was about to find the source, the compass would spin wildly off course and then point somewhere else. Silver had given up trying to pinpoint the source for now. She was currently hovering above the market square with numerous stands below her.
"Eh, what time is it..." Silver glanced over to the nearby clock tower. It showed ten to three. "Probably should be going to see Lee now." Silver looked around and realized that she had no idea where her friend was. Reluctantly she slowly floated down to the ground and turned to the nearest stand which was covered in apples and apple products.
"Hello, miss, I'm looking for the elementary school. Would you be able to point me in the direction?" Silver asked the mare behind the counter. She had an orange coat with a yellow mane and was wearing a brown hat. Silver could see she had three apples for a cutie mark, a bit obvious considering her stand.
"O'course, sugar," the mare replied heartily, raising a hoof towards the left of the clock tower. "If yer flyin, it should be about that way." The mare took a good look at Silver, as if scrutinizing a product to buy. "Hmm, ah don’'t think ah've seen yah in Ponyville before. You new here?"
"Umm, yes. I flew in from Canterlot this morning. My name is Silver Rush." Silver extended a hoof which the farmer gladly shook. "I'm staying here with a friend for a few weeks.”
"Well, it's nice to meet yah, Miss Rush. Ah'm Applejack," she said, "ah run Sweet Apple Acres on the outskirts of town. We got the finest apples 'round these parts."
"The one with the big red barn?" Silver questioned.
"Yeah, how'd yah know?" Applejack replied.
"Oh, I saw it while flying here; quite an impressive orchard," she commented. From the view high in the air, Sweet Apple Acres was almost as big, if not bigger than Ponyville itself.
"Thank yah kindly, Miss Rush," Applejack said, "And what do you do all the way up in Canterlot? If you wouldn't min' me asking."
Silver thought for a second. She couldn't actually say that she worked for the royal guard and was on a secret mission to investigate the outbreaks of violence. Thankfully she had already planned for something like this and had a cover story.
"Not at all. I'm a teacher at the Canterlot School for Pegasi." Silver stole a quick glance at the clock tower. "Well, it was nice talking with you, Applejack, but I must be going now.”
"S'alright sugarcube, ah understand," Applejack said.
"Oh, and you can call me Silver!" she called while taking off.
"Have a nice day, Silver!" Applejack smiled. She waved while silver took to the skies above Ponyville once more. Once she had flown out of site, Applejack turned her attention back to her stand. "Hmm, something don't seem right 'bout that one," Applejack muttered to herself.
Ah, that must be the schoolhouse. By the edge of the town, Silver could see a large red building off the side of the road. There was a torrent of colts and fillies spewing out of the main doors heading in every which way. Silver banked left and gracefully glided down beside the path leading up to the building. She had to wait a few seconds for the students to pass before she could even attempt making it to the door.
Silver walked up and gingerly pushed the door open with a hoof. The first thing that hit her as she walked inside was the huge array of bright colors. The walls were scattered with colorful drawings and posters. There were four rows of desks and a large table at the front of the class. There were also three little fillies talking with their teacher who was behind said table.
"Girls, I don't want to have to tell you again. If you're going to try ridiculous stunts, at least try them outside of class," the teacher scolded.
"We're sorry," the three fillies apologized in practiced unison. It was quite obvious that they were bored.
"Alright, I guess you three can go now," she said.
The three fillies immediately ran for the door, nearly trampling Silver. She had to float into the air to avoid the whirlwind of colors. Once the group had left the building, Silver slowly walked up to the teacher who was erasing something on the chalkboard.
"Cute girls, a bit over energetic though," Silver commented.
"Oh, you have no idea," Cheerilee replied as she turned around. She was an earth pony with a light purple coat and a striped purple mane. She walked up around the table and gave Silver a big hug.
"It's great to see you again, Silver," Cheerilee greeted, "It's been way to long."
"Good to see you as well, Lee," Silver replied. The two of them had known each other for a long time. They both grew up in Ponyville and gone to university in Canterlot. Afterwards Silver stayed while Cheerilee came back to Ponyville. She was one of the few ponies who knew what Silver actually did for a job.
"So, how's the super top secret spy business going?" Cheerilee asked nonchalantly.
"Before this assignment, pretty boring really. Just training recruits and looking at the odd disturbance report. And you?" Silver replied.
"Well, about as good as you'd expect teaching elementary school to go," she sighed, "Very tiring at points."
"Yeah, I could see," Silver joked, "Those three were really messing with you."
"Oh, like you would know," Cheerilee retorted, "Those three are constantly doing stupid things to try and get their cutie marks. It was cute at first but now it's just annoying."
"Sounds fun," Silver feigned interest.
"So, what is your disguise this time?" Cheerilee questioned, "No wait, let me guess. Teachers assistant?"
"Pretty much. Thought it would make the most sense seeing as I'll be staying here." Silver motioned with a hoof to the surrounding schoolhouse. She turned back to Cheerilee with a small smile. "I still think you would've made a great partner on the team."
"Maybe, but I knew right out of university that I wanted to come back here and teach myself," Cheerilee replied, "So, any details you can give me about your super top secret mission?"
"Sorry, I can't at the moment. But there is something you can help me with," Silver countered, "do you know Twilight Sparkle?"
"Oh, of course. She runs the library so I see her whenever I get books for the class. We're rea-"
*grumble*
"Heh, sorry about that," Silver apologized, "guess I am a bit hungry."
"Want to go out for lunch?" Cheerilee asked.
"Sure, let's go to the café by the square. I haven't had a better daisy sandwich anywhere in Canterlot," Silver chuckled.
Silver left her saddlebags next to the table as the two of them walked out the building. A few seconds after the door clicked shut a quiet beeping could be heard from inside the bags.
Big thanks to Dr. Jekyll & Nikitakitten for prereading/editing the chapter!