The Silver Stars

by David Silver

113 - Organizing the Crew

With Fast at his side, Silver flew swiftly towards Ponyville. Glancing aside at his feminine side, Silver snorted and smiled. "It feels like the universe really wants me to get some of 'me'."

Fast raised a brow and grinned at him. "Oh, am I pressing all the right buttons?" She flew in close. "I'll wear this one when we have some time then, and we'll see what kinds of music we can get out of two silver instruments."

Silver nipped her before putting a few inches between them. "This is the least creepy time I've had the offer, for what that's worth."

They landed before Twilight's castle and a thought occurred to Silver. "Maybe we shouldn't take them."

"Oh? Why not?"

Silver scowled. "They could try to make a move and hurt or take either of them if we leave the home base entirely undefended. Let's talk to them and have them guard the home front for us."

Fast nodded quickly. "Alright. I trust you and Night to do the heavy mental lifting, so let's do that then."

They trotted inside and found Spike first, organizing some books. Silver approached with a smile. "Hey, big guy. We have a true chore for a true dragon."

He quirked a brow. "Huh? What? You need something cleaned?"

Fast shook her head. "He was being serious. Only real adults need apply."

"Oh?" Spike perked up and hopped off the stool he was on. "What is it?"

Silver gestured. "I have reason to suspect an attack may come. I hope and pray I'm wrong, but if it does, I'll rest easier knowing you're here and ready to mount a proper defense. Twilight's going to be too round, along with Night, to do much."

The information sunk into Spike, his eyes widening. "You can count on me! I'll keep them both safe."

Fast clapped him on the shoulder. "We knew we could count on you. You won't be alone. You see Jake or Tumble?"

Spike waved it off. "Jake's off chasing after Rainbow I bet. Poor guy doesn't even know he doesn't stand a chance."

Fast and Silver shared a glance before Silver forced a smile. "How about Tumble?"

Spike hiked a thumb upwards. "Out on the balcony last I saw. He didn't leave, so he has to be in the castle."

Fast bobbed her head. "Great, we'll go talk to him then."

"One thing." Spike waved a finger back and forth between them. "Is there a reason there's two of you?"

Silver shook his head. "You know Fast."

"Yeah, figured..." Spike let them go, and they found Tumble out on the balcony as promised, but Jake was there as well.

Silver waved a wing as he entered. "Hey, both of you at once, what a deal."

Fast bobbed her head. "We need you two to play guard duty on the house, extra alert."

Jake looked confused. "Huh?"

Tumble was faster to come around. "Of course! I was mid-patrol when I came across Jake."

Jake rolled a hand. "What's up? You know I'm not an official guard or anything."

Silver nodded at Jake. "But you are a friend of the family. Someone may show up to cause trouble, or not. Be aware and ready to act. Even giving Tumble and Spike a warning may make all the difference, alright?"

"Yeah yeah, sure." He waved it off. "Why not call Twilight's friends? They're used to trouble and pretty good at it."

Silver glanced out over Ponyville, home of most of Twilight's friends. "They have their own lives, and we don't know for sure anything'll happen at all. Let them do what they have to do."

Fast rolled a hoof. "If this carries on, they'll be here soon. Doesn't Twilight have that yak delegation coming in from YakYakistan?"

Jake clapped his hands together. "That's right. Okay, we'll keep an eye on things. You go off and do whatever you're doing. I'm assuming it's important and not TV-Y."

"What?" Tumble looked confused.

Silver nodded. "Exactly. We'll try to get back as quickly as we can. Thank you, both of you."

With the home secured, the two alicorns that appeared as siblings took flight from there, headed back towards Canterlot. "I have an idea of one who could join us, but I can't be sure they're on our side, against us, or just completely unaware of what's going on."

"Who?" Fast looked aside at Silver. "I'm no Night, but I can give you my take."

"Sure. Luna."

Fast tilted her head. "Safe."

"So sure?"

Fast bobbed her head. "Luna's been getting more and more irate about the whole situation. She's so... She loves you, Silver. She's ready to murder a pony if it'll fix things. There's no way she's on the bad guy side."

Silver considered a moment before giving a shaking nod. "I believe you. Second half of the question, how do we get to her without running the gauntlet?"

Fast tapped him on the shoulder. "Hello, dream prince? Take a little snooze and ask her to meet up somewhere."

Silver slapped his face with a hoof. "Duh, of course." He veered down into the trees with Fast right behind. Settling down, sleep came to him easily, and he was thrust into the world of dreams.

Luna was there, smiling at him when he arrived. "This is not your usual time. Are you feeling better?"

Silver smiled gently. "Luna, it's good to see you. I came here for you actually."

She perked an ear. "Did you now? Tell us more." She took hold of his shoulders and pulled them both into her dreamscape, where they sat on a large cloud, facing one another. "You have found me."

"I have." Silver leaned in and nuzzled gently. "Let's keep this brief. Your sister, something's wrong with her."

Luna scowled. "Kind words from a kind soul. How could..." She cut herself off, looking Silver over. "Are you ready to confess?"

Silver perked an ear. "I don't think she did it, or at least, not our Celestia. I aim to find out. I'm not wallowing in this one moment longer."

"Not her?" She sat up. "She speaks defensively. What do you mean?"

"Let's find out, together." Silver rose to his hooves, wings fluttering. "Fast is with me, watching over me as we do this. Can you see where I am?"

"I can. Stay there, I'll be there in a moment."

The dream ended. Rather than stick the landing, Silver faded from the dreamworld entirely and woke up to Fast stroking along his mane. "Hey."

Fast smiled. "Hay is for horses."

"Good thing we are those." Silver sat up. "Or was that racist?"

Fast wobbled a hoof. "Little A little B. I've studied animal origins before, so it doesn't ruffle me, even if it is kind of controversial. Was she there? What'd she say?"

"She said she would be there shortly." Luna landed beside them, wings tucking in at her sides. "Now, shall we shed light on this mystery? What do you mean to do to cast this aside and finally restore harmony where I have felt only discord?"

"What'd I do?" Discord popped out from behind a tree.

Silver laughed softly at Discord. "Oh there you are! Good to see you."

Discord returned the grin. "I can always count on at least one pony to be happy to see me. What sort of mischief are you up to that gets Miss Moon Butt here to say my name?"

Fast waved. "Oh, you know, maybe changeling clones, maybe wild fever dreams. We won't find out until we finish looking."

Silver rolled a hoof at Fast. "Don't forget the conspiracy theories."

"Ooo, this rabbit hole really does go deep, doesn't it?" Discord leaned forward, fluttering his lashes.

Luna snorted at the display. "And we mean to find its bottom and root out those who would act against us. Enough, are you with us, or against us?"

Discord waved it off. "Nah. Just checking in with my buddy here." He held a paw up. Silver offered a hoof and received the first high-five he had gotten in a while. "Good luck with that, sounds like a load of fun. Tell me about it later. Ciao!" And he was gone in a pop.

Luna turned her gaze to Silver and Fast. "Very well, now that that's out of the way, where do we proceed?"

Fast nodded up towards the mountain they were beside. "The hive I helped establish. Where else are we going to get primo changeling rumors?"

Luna frowned. "I may not be as welcome there." She glowed, becoming smaller and her wings vanishing away, leaving her a light purple unicorn. "There. I should raise fewer brows this way. Let's go."

Silver looked back at himself. "Can I do that?"

"We see no reason why not."

Silver copied the spell he saw in Luna's horn as best he could, but that failed. Fortunately, Luna was right there, and she showed him the letters more slowly until he could copy it properly, turning into Silver Lining, the brown furred unicorn with silver mane he was before he accepted Luna's offer. "I feel so small."

Luna grinned. "As do I. Hopefully few will recognize us. You were not nearly so famous before you became as you are today."

Fast turned and lowered herself. "Hop up. You two crazy unicorns went and forgot it takes wings to fly properly." They scaled up on her and she took off as she became her usual red color, though large enough to support the both. "We'll be there in a flash, then I'll hide myself and get in character, hmm? We have a hive to explore."

Author's Note:

Is this what you expected this chapter to be? Typos. I blame it all on typos.

Comments

[harts fire]

I am going to say I still see a 50% chance of death heading towards at lest one of Silver's friends.
it is just a feeling I am getting.

[Daremo]

buttons. - buttons?

*****
Perhaps I'm only feeling paranoid given what has happened, but Jake's reactions appear... off. He doesn't really ask for more information when told an attack may come (to be fair, neither does Rough Tumble), and he refers to the other members of the Mane 6 as 'Twilight's friends' when I would expect him to at least mention RD by name given his infatuation with her. He does make that TV-Y reference and there's a pretty low chance that an impostor would know that detail from the other world.

Another key question that I thought about since last chapter is, if Celestia really has been taken and replaced, who is raising the sun each day? Luna would certainly know if something was amiss there, so the paranoid thought is that she really is in on it, or if she isn't then they are either dealing with the real Celestia who is being controlled in some fashion, or there is someone or something powerful enough to raise the sun in her absence and do it well enough that Luna is unaware. I really, really want Luna to be clean and in the right here...

edited for spllig

[tsaukpaetra]

Time to infiltrate the infiltrators!
Keep going! ;)

[David Silver]

6755193 Typo fixed, but the rest remains in the dark, for now.

Why would anyone take Jake of all people? Because no one would ever suspect!

Did you enjoy the not-so-subtle jab with Spike?

[Daremo]

6756592 -

Did you enjoy the not-so-subtle jab with Spike?

Hmmm? *re-reads the chapter* ohhh... it made me smile.

[Cursed Quill]

TV-Y"

TV-Y."

can't be

has two spaces

[Shachza]

Luna landed beside us, wings tucking in at her sides.

Alert! Typo at 3 o'clock high! Squish it!

Also, I'm back to this story now. I feel like I'm reading Back to the Future with all these convoluted maybe-happeneds/maybe-not-happeneds.

[roryokane]

Comma splice:

The dream ended, rather than stick the landing, Silver faded from the dreamworld entirely and woke up to Fast stroking along his mane. "Hey."

Should be:

The dream ended. Rather than stick the landing, Silver faded from the dreamworld entirely and woke up to Fast stroking along his mane. "Hey."