Silver snuggled gently against his wife in bed. Sure, it hurt in interesting places, but he was safe. He was home, and he had Night Watch. The way he figured it, there wasn't much to gripe about, little aches and pains or not. What there was to complain about was that Night seemed distracted the entire time. Even trying a known ticklish spot barely got a wriggle out of her. "Night? Hon? You alright? Was it the fight? Are you mad?"
Trixie's voice sang out in the dark, "Your display was nothing short of magnificent, colt of mine. You should have seen the looks of utter amazement on the guards when you practically set their training room ablaze, to say nothing of how they reacted when you grabbed that would-be challenger. Trixie is absolutely certain you did well."
Night frowned a little. Having one's in-laws constantly around did have its downsides. "Be that as it may, yes... You could have said no to start, but then you could have surrendered, several times. Hay, towards the end, you could have rolled over and not a pony there would have said you did less than put up a good fight."
Silver could feel real hurt and distress as she talked and he moved in all the closer, holding her. "I'm sorry, really. Once I got started, I was focused on not-losing, and doing everything I could. I'm not... used to sparring really."
She poked him in the chest. "When would you have surrendered?"
He considered that with a small frown in the dark. "I was pretty out of it. I was pretty sure another smack around or two and I wouldn't have had too much choice in the matter." He nipped at her shoulder with his blunt teeth. "Are you mad?" he repeated as he nestled close. "I'm ready for my punishment."
Night snorted as her ears went up. "Your 'Punishment' is..." She trailed off, thought unfinished. She pulled him tight suddenly. "Just be safe, stupid unicorn. And I get to call a surrender for you in any future honor duels."
"Honor duels?"
Night nuzzled his confused face. "What? You didn't figure that out? Why do you think she was so insistent on starting, and angry at it ending?"
"She likes fighting a lot?"
Night rolled her eyes. "There is some of that... Tell me, what are those things, at the front of her barrel. The bumps."
A loud snort came from the dark. Silver guessed it was Rough Draft. Figured he'd be aware of biped basic body configurations. "Well, while most animals, including ponies, only grow their breasts significantly when producing milk, humans and anubians are different. They remain at almost full size even when not carrying their young, as a sort of, uh..." Stick to the cut and dry, he mentally scolded himself. "Fertility indicator."
Night raised a brow, as unseen as it was. "I didn't grow those."
"You did." Silver smiled a little. "I was there. They weren't ever very large compared to the rest of you, and you didn't use them, but you had them."
"Where?"
He brushed his hoof down along her barrel until he heard her gasp faintly. He had found them. "Here."
"O-oh..." Hidden in darkness, her face burned. "I thought that was just part of being fat..."
Trixie's voice spoke gently, "In a very real sense, it is."
Silver nuzzled softly at her cheek. "Why?"
Night glanced away. "Let's get some sleep. We can discuss this tomorrow, at the office."
With the topic slammed shut, Silver nestled quietly, and soon they both surrendered to the silent call of sleep.
The next morning saw both seated in the office. Silver stretched out a leg, only to wince at the soreness just beneath the surface. "I hope she's alright."
Night perked an ear.
"She may have bashed me around and gave me a headache, but I set her on fire. That's not the same thing." Silver shook his head. "I feel a bit guilty about it."
Night adjusted her glasses just to delay her response a moment. "She's fine. She received care immediately afterwards."
Silver raised a brow. "Is that where you went?"
Caught, Night let out a little breath. "Yes."
"Was she angry? Are you?"
Night smiled a little. "Anger wasn't exactly what I found..." She glanced away and back. "That crazy dream of yours. Did it happen to mention anything about this?"
Silver opened his mouth as a soft clopping came from the door.
"Letter!"
Night flew to the door and had it opened to receive the letter and nod in thanks to the courier. She ripped it open quickly and read over the parchment. "It's from Starlight. She wants to see you, alone." She slapped the letter down on the desk. "All part of the plan, right?"
Silver licked his lips. "Assuming things are going properly, she'll either ask for or take my spell-binding ability, temporarily." He slid to the ground and gave a stiff stretch. "Either way, I should go." He took a step towards the door, then stopped. "Come with me? I know you can be sneaky, my love. Stay quiet and out of sight, just in case she does something extreme, which I don't predict. We haven't given her any reason to even think we want to stop her."
Night felt a tension she hadn't realized just fade away as she moved to follow him. "I'll be your eyes."
Silver trotted from the castle and glanced back to see that he was entirely alone. He only realized then that he never really finished the last conversation and made a mental note to bring it up again later. Pushing that matter aside, he traveled down the well-cobbled streets of Canterlot in pursuit of the small bar that Starlight had referred to. Did ponies have outright bars? Apparently yes.
As he trotted past an alleyway, something prodded him right in the flanks and he jumped with surprise.
Starlight emerged from the shadows with that little smirk of hers. "Shocked to see me? This way." She turned and retreated into the darkness. "We have much to discuss."
Silver turned off the road to follow her. "We aren't going to that bar then?"
"Do you need a drink that badly?" she asked over her shoulder. "That was just to get you to come down this road. I had a feeling you wouldn't take any detours." Her horn glowed as she opened a door with no knobs or handles and vanished into deeper darkness. "This way."
Silver glanced over his shoulder, but he didn't see Night. Of course he wouldn't, not if she was doing her part. He entered the building and the metal door slammed shut behind him, making him jump for the second time.
"Alright, warlock..." Starlight turned to face him. "What's your real game?"
"Pardon?" Silver shook his head. "You asked me to come here, remember?"
Starlight rolled her eyes. "In the big picture. You are a warlock, ponies know that. You just fought an anubian to a standstill, and you're fanatically loyal to Celestia." She pressed close suddenly. "You'd do anything for that big mare, wouldn't you?"
Silver felt tense with a new fear. "I like her, quite a bit, but what does that have to--"
Starlight put a hoof on his snout. "So why would any such agent of hers work with me to take revenge on her little spoiled student? I don't think you're smitten, so don't try that act."
Silver shook his head a little. "Look..."
Starlight rolled a hoof to continue.
Silver swallowed nervously. "I'm on your side, Starlight. I really think it'll work out."
"Is that what your cutie mark told you?" She hiked a brow.
"No."
"Then what?" She leaned forward. "No lies."
No lies, right. "I had a dream, a vision. You did some things, some of them very unkind, but there is an other side to this tunnel."
"A vision you say?" She snorted loudly. "And I'm supposed to believe a vision?"
"You don't have to." He smiled. "I do, so I'm on your side, Starlight." He sat on his haunches. "I want to help you through this."
She raised a brow high. "Huh. You're deluded, but fine." A scroll popped into existence beside her. "I got what I wanted, but it's far too limited. One week for a matter of seconds? I think not." She hurled the scroll at Silver's hooves. "Fix it."
Silver licked his lips. "This is no small spell. I won't be able to fix it instantly." He reached with his magic, picking it up and looking it over. It was a dense maze of unicorn letters and cautionary scripts. It was clearly a high level spell, the likes of which took Twilight to cast, or Starlight. "Can you turn up the lights in here?"
"Oh, certainly." She flicked a switch and suddenly they were flooded with light from above. They seemed to be in some old cannery of some kind.
Silver shook his head and blinked furiously as he adapted to the new light. "Thanks..." He began reading in earnest, his mouth working silently as he silently spoke the letters of the spell and tried to puzzle it through. This was different. In the dream, he never set his eyes on the actual spell, or actively helped Starlight so directly. She had done it herself with his talent. Here he was, doing it all himself.
The letters seemed to jump before him. They hadn't changed, but his understanding did, making a sudden sharp intuitive leap. Some of those letters simply weren't needed. Star Swirl hadn't failed to make a proper time travel spell, he had specifically limited it, likely to avoid massive harm from being inflicted on others.
Starlight suddenly grinned. "Is that the look of a clever pony?"
Was he that obvious? "I think I see what needs to be changed to remove the limit."
"Good! Take that off and I'll erase her existence."
Silver felt ice form around his heart. "That's a bit extreme, don't you think?"
"Why shouldn't I? If she never exists, then I'll get my town back, and a chance to show the world how good it is without her meddling with it." Starlight prodded him in the shoulder. "Get to it."
"But what if you made her feel as you felt instead?"
"Pardon?"
Silver smiled nervously. "She stole your friendships and dreams, right?"
"Yes... And your point is?"
"So take hers." Silver nodded firmly. That felt a lot easier to eventually fix than actually rubbing Twilight out of history.
Starlight sank to her haunches and looked thoughtful for several tense moments. "You may have a point. She'll never learn her lesson if she's not even there to learn it, and that way I could see the look on her stupid face as her life crumbles around her." She clopped her forehooves together loudly. "Yes, I like that. Make sure she comes along each time, so I get to see her pretty little face collapsing every time I outsmart her."