Silver roused with a purpose, or at least a remembered one.
His motion caused Sunny to open her eyes and watch him silently a moment as he slid from the bed. She was the first, but hardly the last as the gentle disturbances stirred Celine and Night from their respective slumbers.
Celine sprang to the floor and began trotting towards the nursery. "I'll check on the foals."
Night reached with a wing for her glasses and slid them into place. "Thanks, but I'll be in to say good morning to them shortly."
Sunny slid down beside Silver. "You look like you have something on your mind."
Trixie ran a brush through her mane as she regarded Silver. "Are you looking forward to the next lesson that eagerly? Trixie would like to try it as well."
Silver lifted an ear at his mother. "Yes, but that's not what Sunny's thinking of." He turned to Sunny fully. "In the dream, I was pretty involved with a pair of sisters."
The strike of a wing upside his head was swift. Night frowned at him as she stalked past him. "At least pretend it's embarrassing."
Silver blinked softly. "I got one of them killed, which one is a bit blurry. They were Saddle Arabians, being given a hard time for being what they were with their feline neighbors. If they're real, I'd like to lend a hoof. A letter or two, a few bits?"
Sunny got that little smile she liked to get. "That sounds lovely. Do you know their names?"
Names were not Silver's strength, but those two had been special. "Shai and Aila Windsong, if I recall properly. They have an aunt, Patty Windsong. Can you find them?"
"Personally, no." Sunny rose and moved towards the small kitchen the suite had. "But there are others I can call on. What did they do for a living?"
Night raised a brow at the two. "You're seriously going to go through with that? How do we know they aren't figments of his dream?"
Sunny lifted her shoulders. "How can we say they are or are not? Let us assume they are not until proven otherwise. He's been accurate enough."
Silver put a hoof behind his head. "Night, I'm not trying to get involved with them like that, not at all. They're a country away and I don't plan to visit, but a few letters and well wishes won't hurt them or us."
Rough woke with a thunderous yawn and half rolled out of bed. "Morning everypony. Waking up with so many ponies around is still kind of new." He smiled despite it. "I think I like it."
Trixie poked him lightly. "Don't get too used to it. The Great and Powerful Trixie likes having some quiet time between her bedazzling appearances before her adoring crowds."
Sunny began gathering ingredients to prepare a breakfast. "Silver?"
Starting, he nodded quickly. "Oh, yes, they had an inn."
"Ah, that should narrow it down. Windsongs, Saddle Arabians, owned an inn in Anugypt. How many of those could there be." Sunny went quiet then, focusing on making breakfast.
Night nudged Silver's shoulder with a snout. "Let's check the foals." He easily agreed and they walked into the nursery to find Celine seemingly juggling the two in her magic, apparently to their delight as they squealed and giggled.
Silver tilted his head with some confusion. "Isn't that a bit rough to start the day with?"
Celine snorted softly. "Tis not my magic that holds them aloft. Foals can be quite unpredictable. My magic keeps them from fleeing me. Morning Glory is holding himself and his sister up."
Night reached with her wings and carefully drew the two squirming foals to herself as she sat. "That's enough roughhousing for one morning, you two. Don't you worry, we'll do something fun today." They cheered despite not being able to speak, leaving Silver wondering just how pony linguistic development worked.
He reached out a hoof and Clear Twilight broke off from her feeding to approach him. She was noticeably larger than Morning Glory. "Just how much larger will you become, my wonderful daughter?" He grabbed her up and nuzzled her as his magic grabbed for the bottle and brought it over, resuming her breakfast.
Night smiled a little, watching Silver and Clear Twilight. "You're pretty cute when you're focused on being a father."
Celine bobbed her head. "It is not a bad look for him. Methinks Lady Lulamoon is eager to begin the day. She's watching you quite carefully."
Silver knew a hint when he heard one. He carefully set Clear down and nuzzled the top of her head. "Want to see daddy mess up and throw himself around?"
She gave a loud cry that may have been affirmative and began following him. Not to be left behind, Morning vanished from Night's arm and appeared beside Clear, accompanying her to see what Silver was up to.
Night rolled her eyes as she trailed behind. "So what exactly are you practicing today?"
Trixie clopped her hooves with joy when the party emerged. "Excellent! Today we begin lessons in internal telekinesis."
Night raised a brow sharply. "I will not have Silver reaching inside his innards with his magic."
"Not like that." Trixie waved it off. "From an early age and throughout most of our lives, unicorns focus on applying their force to other things. Lifting, opening, using, but the book is crystal clear on the idea that the unicorn her or himself is as valid a target as anything else. Lifting, for instance." She pointed to the book. "The spell is written there."
Silver lifted an ear at the book as he approached it. "Why do we need a spell at all? There's no spell to grabbing things and picking them up."
Trixie lifted her shoulders. "You are welcome to try, my Brave and Foolish student."
The challenge was given. He nodded and focused his magic, imagining the silvery hand beneath himself just as he'd tried once to flee with as a foal. It lifted up and he rose with it, but it was dizzying. Its relation to himself changed in subtle ways trying to focus on something that moved in that particular configuration with himself. The hand listed to the side a little and he began to slide before he countered it quickly. It was working, but it wasn't graceful. "See, I'm flying."
Trixie nodded. "You're doing quite well, but the spell makes it much more graceful. If she reads it correctly, you'll focus on where you want to be instead of on the magic you're using on yourself." She reached up and poked the magic beneath Silver.
He had interwoven the spell that let him feel through it without thinking about it, just as he had practiced. That was less than ideal in this situation as he became distracted and came crashing to the ground. "Ow." He was more embarrassed than hurt and quickly got himself upright. "Alright, I get the idea. Let's get to--"
"Breakfast." Sunny approached, plates of food hovering around her as she went. She set one down before every pony in the room. "I don't get to cook that often, so I hope it's alright."
No complaints were had as conversation and learning were paused to enjoy the home-made food.
Morning popped out of existence just to land on Night's head with a delighted little coo as he grabbed hold of her from above. Night reached with a wing, petting her son gently. "You be good up there. You had your breakfast, mommy's turn."
Clear waddled up to Rough Draft and gave him a prod. Despite being a little foal, she made him sway dangerously before he recovered and laughed. "My, uh, oh wow it's still weird thinking I have a grandfilly, but here she is." He reached for her, plucking her up and hugging her, only to get a tight hug in return. "Oof! Foals, they're something else..."
Sunny looked distracted a moment, a little frown marring her generally positive features. Night noticed it quickly. "Something wrong?"
She waved it off weakly. "It's... Silver, are you certain they were Windsongs?"
He perked his ears. "Pretty sure. Sisters. Why?"
She let out a little breath. "The only report we have of Windsongs is over a thousand years old... They have long since passed on. Their inn is still standing, at least. It's become something of a monument to the city of Catro."
He felt a chill run through him. "Were they... happy at least?"
Sunny gave a tiny smile. "They fought long and hard for their right to live and prosper in the city. Their work paved the way for others to come after them and the country is far more diverse and lively for it, but they were not much loved while they were alive, and suffered many setbacks."
Silver deflated a little. "Still, they stuck to it... They both would have been proud, to know the legacy they left behind."
Night fidgeted a little. "I don't really understand this, not from your perspective, but I do understand it means a lot to you." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Maybe we could send something, to their inn? Do their descendants run it?"
Sunny tilted her head. "I'll have to check, but that's a lovely idea."
With a loud squeal, Morning appeared atop Silver's head and gave him a bop. Silver smiled at the strike after an instant of frowning. "Even my foals are telling me to buck up." He lifted his son in his magic and nuzzled that exposed belly. "Message received. Enough wallowing in the past. The far past... apparently... Let's get back to magic."
Trixie smiled brightly. "This she can agree with. If you're done with breakfast, let's get to work."
He rose, placing Morning in Night's ready hooves. "Let's get to it."
It was work, but it was enjoyable work.
Very nice chapter Silver, well played...
7101081 You read quickly!
7101084 personally i think it is kinda strange that he can lift himself, i personally thought something like that takes great power an all of that, i upsets me to find out that the windsongs whir real but died a while ago, at least thy prospered.
Hmm.. Over a thousand years.. Something from Luna's side then?
Interesting, so the dream reflected not just the future, but the distant past as well? Which makes sense, seeing as it reflected Luna's memories and imaginings of Equestria at least as much as Silver's. And any memories she might have of equestria would be either a few years old or a thousand+ years, with not much in between besides whatever happened on the Moon.
To.
Guess it was too much to ask for the Windsong sisters to make it into this reality like it did with Surprise. Still, I can imagine the surprise on their descendant's faces when they receive a letter and bits all the way from Equestria.
Typo spotted! embarrassed is the correct spelling and perhaps the sentence should either say "He was more embarrassed than hurt and quickly got himself upright." or just "More embarrassed than hurt he quickly stood/sat upright". I couldnt tell whether he was stood upright or sitting upright so i leave that to you if you use that one. Not sure which you'd prefer i just spot typos i don't deal with them well xD
7101123 Fixed!
7101132 Another typo removed!
Two ways Silver coldve found out about the Windsongs, Celly used diplomatic links and her Equestrian Intelligence Agency overseas files to discover the information.
Or, Celestia couldve just waited till the Blue Phone was available, and made a quick call.
Given the timing, its just more proof now that that etire section was Lunas created dreams, given her time before banishment?
I still think Telekenises and the so called magical or psychical effects will be recreated when using the 4 dimentional kaluza klein equivalents between electromagnetism and gravity. After all, how else am I going to proove I got a theoretical working design for robotic dragons. Oh look, hydrogen plasma torch breath weapons.
Now to see just how efficint they can get the Alcubierre drive. Things would be very stupid when a robot could FTL to another planet, yet not be able to lift itself off the ground.
The foals got fed up waiting for juggling.
the Windsongs it is a closing of a story ark it is happy and sad at the same time, they bout ware wonderful mars and so happy with life it is sad the way they fought to get ware they got it life but at the same time they lived and did not die of poising.
One typo, before anything else:
Unless I'm misremembering, her name was Shei.
7101459 Is that a typo or Silver's memory?
This chapter takes some time out to put the story of the Windsong sisters (and their aunt) to rest. With that regard, I feel that the best word to summarize this is "poignant." It's sad to know that there's no better ending in store for either Windsong, but sad in a sort of quiet and composed way, rather than being overtly tragic. The two of them were simply gone before Silver ever had a chance to interact with their lives, and it leaves it as an open question as to whether that's better or worse for them. On the one hoof, they probably avoided a lot of the strife that they went through in his dream world, and they left behind a notable legacy. On the other, they undoubtedly struggled long and hard without any relief, and were only appreciated after they were gone. It's enough, but it's sad that they couldn't have gotten more for their efforts while they were alive.
...at least they were together.
That said, I'm a little surprised by just how off-target Silver's dream was in this regard. The basic gist of his dream has always been touted as being correct in its accuracy up until now, even if the minor details were wrong. But this seems like a larger deviation than normal, and I'm not sure that this can be brushed aside as one of those aberrant details. Silver's relationship with the Windsongs was not a minor element in his dream, and for something that important to be so completely removed from the waking world...I'm tempted to say that there's more to this, but I'm uncertain.
This also makes me wonder as to the situation in Anugypt. Presuming that detail is still extant, then Amenti's government is still floundering, and she's still going to be married off to some rich noble who'll most likely assume the position of Pharaoh. For that matter, the part about Luna originally being sent there was a plot-thread that was introduced before Silver's dream even happened. So presumably she's still going to be headed there at some point in the near future?
Beyond that, the major point worth noting here is that Silver is oh-so-coincidentally learning the telekinetic flight spell that Starlight will be using when she travels back through time to Cloudsdale, which I presume is done for the narrative purpose of having Starlight steal that spell later. I do have to give props to the story for recognizing - quite correctly - that this isn't simply normal telekinesis that any particularly talented unicorn can pull off. If that were the case, after all, Twilight would have used it when crossing the gorge to escape from the hydra in Feeling Pinkie Keen. Still, this is starting to create the case that everything Starlight's going to pull off is because of Silver, which seems like it's starting to undercut her character a little. Starlight in the show is presented as both brilliant and powerful, but here it seems like she's just treading on Silver's coattails for a lot of what she's able to do. (It's worth remembering that, in the show, even though Starlight tried to steal the Mane Six's cutie marks even after her scheme fell apart, it was never so much as hinted at that she could use them herself.)
Ah well, a nice little intermission, all in all. Let's see where things go next.
7101465 I thought of that, but it seems a little too awful for Silver to get Shei's name wrong after everything that happened. Like the story said, those two were special.
We were wondering if he would follow up on that. Well, that's another thing off the "check my dream concerns" list....
Keep going! ;)
7101502 Starlight has tremendously incredible casting ability, but not a lot of shown talent in magical tweaking, other than the season finale, which I already explained before the season finale happened (go me!).
On the other hoof, her friend as a filly had tremendous research and analytic skill. He could figure out what magic to use and how in any given situation intuitively, but he sucked when it came to actually casting it.
Starlight is using Silver just like she should have been using her friend, all those years ago, and even did so, during their flashbacks. She brings the magic muscle, enough to easily rival even Twilight.
spell the let him - spell that let him
This was less than - That was less than
He more embrassed - He was more embarrassed
*****
I feel silly, but this gave me the shivers. Like someone walking over my grave.
I'd call it a good end. They both lived and they created a legacy that endured long after them. I'd be hard pressed to think of any non governmental or religious entity that has lasted for one thousand plus years.
It gives just the barest hint of the perspective that Celestia and Luna must view their world.
Oh, and he may as well mention the name of the Anugyptian queen he dealt with and see if she is from a millennia earlier as well.
I'm reading this to mean that Night Watch does NOT want Celine/Luna to go to the foals. Am I misreading it? If not, then Celine may have nudged her chances of joining the herd in the wrong direction. Again.
7101720 And Starlight Rivaling Twilight is BS. Twilight is an Alicorn and the Alicorn of Magic no less. This makes very little sense. Unless one subscribes to the Alicorn curse theory. Maybe I could buy a Unicorn Twilight losing to Starlight, But I just cannot fathom how the only pony who could contain four alicorns of magic at once could lose to Starlight. The rational I can think of is that she was holding herself back the same way superman often does so as not accidentally kill someone.
7102326 Take it to Hasbro. I'm working with what I'm given.
7102062 She was making it clear that no foalsitter will replace her, and they didn't. She came in soon after them. No hard feelings were had this day!
As interesting as the pharaoh was, she didn't have nearly the visceral impact on Silver's dream life. He may think of her in time, to say nothing of the Saddle Arabian king and that hilarious but effective turkey ruler.
7102521 fair enough. I know it is not your fault but it does not compute
7102545 because a unicorn that could not evening go to a wizard school can become stronger than twilight was before she was an alicorn and be stronger or evening match her alicorness
7103469 Because self-taught people have never shown up college trained people before...
I'm being sarcastic.
7103613 yes but she is the element of magic and was taught under the wing of celestia and had starswirls library when ever she wanted
7103616 She had a medal, and a famous teacher, and it was a really good university!
People without any of those have changed the world, sometimes right under the nose of people that do.
Here, I'll give you one as a freebie. Steve Jobs never got a college degree.
7103623 ya but he was already a genus, this may be a conspiracy theory but i think he was too smart, ether he was a government scientist put into the public to create this from stolen alien tech or he had a very strang dream that was not his and he got the info, i refuse to believe that we jumped from a pc that takes up entire rooms too micro chips
Questions, even hetorical ones, should have question marks.
"'Tis
Do not cut away from magic lessons!¡!
The Windsongs were more Luna's memory of the area than Silver's prophetic vision? Makes sense that, given her outdated-ness, some things from the dream would be influenced.
Though, I suppose it could be just the names and faces. Perhaps there are Anugyptian horses that need help for some reason. Like, maybe, a xenophobic ruling class that's rising to power under a fresh-faced, politically-unsure Pharaoh is beginning to threaten "foreigners" of the land.