Where Only Silver Shines

by Etyco Filly

S6.1 — Hush

I stepped out of the servants’ bathroom—it was more convenient than using the main bath; even the Captain used it—before heading for my quarters.

“Silver, is that you?” asked the one voice I had hoped not to hear, barely loud enough to reach me.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Maybe she would forget she heard me? No, the Captain was too sharp when she was sober. Even when she wasn’t. Could I get away with ignoring her? Most likely not. The maid was already out. “Yes. I’m about to leave, though.” Please, leave me alone.

Her steps resonated in the hallway, almost louder than her voice. “I need to talk to you.”

I continued towards my room. I had to try, even if my odds of avoiding her were low. “Today’s my day off. You promised you wouldn’t make me do anything on days off.”

Aurora turned the corner, and our eyes met. “It’s not about work. It’s about yesterday.” She squinted. “Or was it already today? I can’t tell.” She rubbed her temple and took a step forward, prompting me to take one backwards. Aurora sighed. “And please let me come closer, yelling makes my skull feel like it’s gonna split.”

I softly shook my head. “No.” I managed to keep my voice from wavering, but it lacked the conviction I had hoped for.

She took another step toward me. “What do you mean, no? I understand that—”

“No!” Both of us winced at my outburst. “I don’t want to talk about it. I want to forget about it. Pure and simple.”

She fell to her haunches. Her defeated expression almost made me reconsider. Begging me to let her finish, she opened her mouth. “But—”

“Look, I have something to do right now. I haven’t slept enough, my head hurts, and the tea hasn’t kicked in yet.” Not to mention, my sleep had been broken by weird dreams. “I don’t want to ever talk or think about it again, and certainly not now.” I put my hoof down. “So make this easier for the both of us and leave me the fuck alone.”

Aurora opened her mouth, then sighed, turned around, and left. I took a deep breath before heading towards my room. What the Hades was she trying to do? Why did she want to talk about yesterday of all things? What did it matter?

No, not thinking about that right now. My dreams, what had they been about? Something about a garden. Or a clearing. There was a pony too, wasn’t there? Was it Keeper? No. Aurora? Absolutely not. Mum…? Maybe. Yeah, it was probably her.

She had tried to convince me to be selfish and leave The Tower; made me promise. I finally had a chance to prove my worth and she would rob me of it? Yeah, as if Mum would ever say such a thing. I snorted. Stupid dream.

Besides, it’s not like leaving The Tower is something anypony can do.

---

Keeper and I were walking down a dim, long hallway, deep in The Tower, well below the regular prisons. The silence had my fur standing on end.

Keeper was on edge as well. Worse than me, in fact. While I stayed wary of my surroundings, she was positively frightened, jumping at every sound, no matter how quiet or distant.

Not that I could blame her. We were so deep in The Tower that nopony had come here in years, if not more. Even the crystals embedded in the walls glowed far dimmer than I’d ever seen.

We hadn’t encountered anything scary yet, and my vision had long since adapted to the darkness. According to the Captain, the worst we could find down here in normal times were animals.

The worrisome part, though, was in normal times.

Everything considered, Keeper kind of impressed me. A few months ago, even the prison layer had terrified her. Now, scared as she was, she led the way at a reasonable pace. Especially impressive, considering she had refrained from casting her invisibility spell.

I still had trouble wrapping my head around the whole thing. How could she do magic if she wasn’t a unicorn? After this, I would have her explain it all. I had no idea earth ponies had any magic, let alone real magic. Technically, pegasi had magic, but not magic. We kinda did, though.

Oh, I was getting lost in thoughts again, wasn’t I?

I turned my head to watch our backs, once again finding nothing.

I set my eyes back forward, only for them to land on her flank, following her graceful gait. Her shabby sweater swayed loosely off her form with every step she took.

Come to think of it, I’d never seen her without it, had I? Kinda made me curious to see the shape of her body. My cheeks grew hot as thoughts spiralled, only to lead to yesterday eve.

I shook my head. That’s what I deserved for getting distracted, I suppose.

I took another look behind us. Still nothing.

My eyes landed on her sweater. Baggy, on top of being old. Surely she owned a newer one, one that fit her better, did she not? Maybe it held some kind of sentimental value?

Sweet Sun, what had happened to my survival instinct? I knew this place was dangerous, that I could not afford to think. And here I was anyway, thinking.

Then again, could I really blame myself? This wasn’t like a forest, where danger lurked around every bush and every tree. We only really had to take care around forks in the road, as well as the occasional nook and cranny.

Watching our backs was necessary, but it also didn’t need all that much attention. If anything ran fast enough to become an issue, surely we’d notice it.

I was travelling with a pretty mare I was close with. Of course I would be distracted.

I took another look back, just to be safe. I was shocked to find… absolutely nothing.

At least it got my mind off of those awkward thoughts.

Did I have a chance with her?

What? Where’d that come from? Of course not. She was a gentlemare, I a guard who’d only gotten this far due to sheer luck.

But at the same time… She’d decided to head into the deepest parts of The Tower still open to the public, just to help me stay safe.

What was I thinking? She was my friend. It’s what friends do. If she had deeper feelings for me, she would have told me.

But then, what if she thought the same? No, that—

A hiss from up ahead snapped my thread of thought. A moment later, a… dog—yes, that resembled a dog—walked out of a nook in the wall, followed by two others.

“Let’s fall back,” I whispered. “Something is weird.” They are usually pack animals. Three dogs are not a pack.

Resolve painted over her fear, Keeper nodded. She turned around, while I kept facing the dogs, after drawing my shortsword and slotting it into the notches on my shoe.

Together, we backtracked. The dogs followed us, keeping their distance. There had to be another path to the abandoned prison. Or perhaps we could find a way to lure them out and slip past.

Before I could come up with more plans, Keeper’s shouted whisper snapped me out of my thoughts. “There’s more of them!” Four of them, to be exact.

“Fuck,” I muttered. “Of course they’d pincer us. Let’s stick with plan A.”

With a flap of my wings, I was airborne and took a look around. A few of the dogs crouched, ready to pounce if I tried to fly above them. All of them started approaching, occasionally hissing. Below me, Keeper levitated out four pristine daggers, now suspended in a deep crimson aura.

In a flash, one of the daggers darted out towards the nearest dog. With a metallic screech, it pierced the beast’s chest. It fell with a yelp.

While the aura surrounding each blade wasn’t blinding, it still allowed me to confirm my earlier suspicion. These dogs were covered in reptilian scales. The blade tugged at the corpse, but without its earlier momentum, Keeper failed to pull it out.

With her attention on the beast she’d just felled, her back was wide open to the dog approaching her. Or it would have been, had I not been here. I brought my hind hoof down into its skull, slamming the beast into the ground with a crunchy thud.

This shared display of force made the pack reconsider. Two out of seven had already fallen, and the rest stopped their advance. Keeper’s remaining daggers darted to another dog and started slashing rapidly. While each individual cut only barely drew blood, the three daggers were fast enough to quickly cover the beast in dozens of shallow wounds.

Each time it tried to duck out of the way of one knife, two others found a way to add more cuts to the rapidly growing collection.

I watched in awe as they drove the creature back. I occasionally glanced behind us, but the other dogs were falling back as well.

I found myself wondering how I would fare against such an assault. The blades were fast, but not impossibly so. They mostly relied on keeping momentum high while remaining agile, and avoided sharp turns.

Swatting one dagger away with a sword would be possible, and would likely create an opening long enough to swat away the others and dive for the mage controlling them. Despite their beautiful movement, the pacing of their attacks stayed rather crude and inexperienced, as made obvious by the many slashes that did miss. However, given more time and training, Keeper would become a formidable opponent.

Still, it was enough to drive this dog into retreat. It would definitely succumb to its wounds sooner or later, but for now it had enough energy to run away with its scaly tail between its legs. Every other dog followed.

I sighed in relief and landed next to Keeper. “Great job, Keep.”

She gulped and took a deep breath in an attempt to relax. Her heart beat hard and fast enough that her neck visibly pulsed. I found myself drawn to it, and almost nuzzled it in an attempt to calm her down. At the last moment, I stopped myself and instead placed my hoof on her withers. She briefly tensed, only to fully relax.

After we both calmed down, we inspected the corpses. While their jaw structure closely resembled that of a canine, their long fangs reminded me of a serpent’s.

The one I’d kicked was still breathing by the time I slid my blade between its scales and slit its throat. The scales were surprisingly hard, and it was a small wonder Keeper had managed to cut into them so quickly.

Though that became less of a wonder when I saw the state of her blades. Nicks and scratches covered the main three daggers, and the intact portions of the blade were noticeably duller. She’d also broken off the tip of the knife she’d thrust into the first dog.

At this sight, I was very thankful for my instincts telling me to kick it rather than slash.

---

There was a door. There had been many of them, embedded into the dark corridor’s nearly black walls. What made this one stand apart was the light shining through the crack beneath it. Keeper and I had been standing in front of it, whispering ideas on what to do. We could storm inside, but that might lead to unnecessary violence. We could also ignore it, but we were drawing suspiciously close to that prison I’d found; whoever was inside probably knew something about the monster.

The idea that kept coming up was to simply knock. While that was interesting in practice, we also had no clue whether it would lead to us getting hurt. What if the pony inside attacked us the moment she—or maybe he?—heard us? Keeper was optimistic, while I remained on the cautious side.

We were at a standstill. Sun and Moon knew how much time we wasted in quiet indecision.

Really, it shouldn’t have been surprising when the door flew open. Or at least that’s what it seemed like at the moment. In reality, it swung open normally, revealing a dark green unicorn wearing a white coat.

The mare tilted her head to the side. “Huh?”

While both Keeper and I scrambled for words, the unicorn took a step inside, waving us in. “I wasn’t expecting guests, but I do have tea,” she hesitantly said. She was as lost as Keeper and I, despite her attempt to play it cool.

Naturally, we followed her in. Against one side of the room stood a shelf covered with tubes and glass containers, each full of strangely coloured liquids. In the opposite corner was a small table that held a few dirty plates and a big pot of tea.

The unicorn walked towards the table, and we followed. She magically pulled out two cups from the cupboard and poured the tea into them. Her own cup was stained dark brown from tea, not having been washed for at least a few weeks. None of us said a word as we took that hesitant first sip of tea.

She stared at me as she took hers, only to quietly swear as it burnt her tongue. Why was she so familiar? I had never met her before. While she licked her own foreleg, presumably in an odd attempt to cool down her tongue, I leaned to the side, trying to look at her from another angle as if that would help.

She stopped her antics and clicked her tongue several times, trying to get the taste of fur out of her mouth. Finally, she broke the dreadful silence. “So, what are you doing here of all places, Silver?”

I fell out of my chair.

After Keeper helped me back up—something I didn’t need, but appreciated nonetheless—I stared at the unicorn, but she remained perfectly neutral, expecting a reply. I took a few more moments to calm down. “How do you know my name?”

“I treated you when you were a tiny little colt. Of course you wouldn’t remember, but you should still have the scar.” She ran her hoof underneath the left side of her ribs.

I mimicked the gesture, and found an old scar there. In the corner of my eye, Keeper did the same. I gulped.

I always had this scar. As far as I could remember. And I’d forgotten about it.

“I…” I started, but no words. I had no idea what to say, or where to even begin.

“Oh, where are my manners! My name’s Vitro, by the way. Physician, surgeon, and mage. And avid mathematician, but that’s irrelevant. Or is it? I dunno. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” She squinted at the table and started muttering to herself, “No wait, I’ve already met you, so I guess that doesn’t work. Then again, can I really say I met you if you weren’t old enough to even speak or remember me? Probably not.” She gave a satisfied nod. “So yeah, great to meet you!”

I slowly nodded. “Good, uh, to meet you too.”

Keeper took the occasion to introduce herself, “I’m Keeper. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Vitro squinted her eyes at Keeper, but then shook her head and said to us in a bright tone, “What can I do for you? Normally I’d complain you interrupted my research, but I was going out on a break anyway.”

“I had something else to ask about, but I’m too curious,” I said. “What kind of surgery did you do on me?”

Her smile grew into a proud grin. “Something very experimental that I was able to perfect over time. You ever wonder why you’re still alive?” She furrowed her brow and quickly added, “Well, technically I haven’t perfected it yet, since I’m still doing research on it, but I’ve improved it a lot. In relative terms, I guess you could say it’s perfect compared to way back when.” Another satisfied nod. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Something… experimental? What does that mean?” I understood the word, but I couldn’t make sense of what she’d said.

“Means I didn’t know if it would succeed. Your mother was very much against it, but your father insisted.” She’d known my father? “Was kind of his dying wish, really. I would have tried it on him as well, but given how weak he was, it just wasn’t worth the effort because the strain woulda killed him for sure. Still, the fact he was still able to walk at the age of fifty-three was absolutely mind-blowing. That’s what made you and your little sister such amazing test subjects, really.”

My eyelid twitched, and I gritted my teeth. Maybe it was her nonchalant way of saying such important things, but she was really getting under my hide.

Wait. I only used to have an older sister.

“Oh come on,” she said, “don’t look at me like that. Without me you’d be dead. Or, if your father’s blood got stronger, you might still be alive in a bed somewhere. Relax.” The way she drew out that a made me want to draw out her blood.

“You still risked my life! What, am I supposed to be happy that I almost died before I could even fly? And what the Hades are you talking about, my sister? I don’t have a younger sister! Or did you kill her?”

She rolled her eyes, unaware of or uncaring for my building murderous anger. “Well, I was estimating your chances of survival at forty-five percent. Forty-five percent chance of gaining ninety years of life expectancy, weighed against fifty-five percent chance of losing fifty-five or so leaves you with an expected value of a gain of ten and a quarter. It seemed like a net gain, really.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but every word she said served to piss me off further. My jaw was clenched shut, and I glared daggers at her, but she didn’t even look my way as she continued her monologue, “In hindsight, it was more around twenty percent. There were factors in ponies that I hadn’t accounted for compared to rats, so apologies for that. But hey, it all turned out well. Even your sister survived, despite her lower odds.”

Her face brightened in realisation. “Right! I almost forgot to answer that question. She had complications after the surgery, so I had to take her in for a bit, then leave her with a medically competent family. By the time she was stable, she already thought of them as her family, and it would have been a pain to convince her to leave them.” After seeing my harsh glare, she added, “I mean, uh, it would have been cruel to uproot her,” before focusing her eyes on the mug.

We sat in silence, and her face gradually lightened. Finally, she looked up, only to meet my glare. “Oh come on!” She threw up both forelegs into the air. “I’ve improved the procedure so much! You were both instrumental in saving lives and whatnot! Don’t you care about that? Thanks to you—well, in part, it’s not like you were my only test subjects. Though I suppose you were the ones I learned the most from—I managed to understand an organism’s reaction to the foreign matter much better and can plan accordingly. It’s gotten so good that I was confident doing it on the Fell heir, and she was just about as frail as a sheet of paper.”

She squinted her eyes again and looked to the side, towards Keeper, who was trying her best to make herself as small as possible. Caught off guard by the strange reaction, I didn’t have time to say anything before Vitro shouted, “You! What’re you doing here‽”

Her shout bore no anger, only shock and awe.

Keeper only managed a meek, “I… uh…” before Vitro cut her off.

“I mean, it makes me proud of my work to know you’re well enough to roam the lower floors of The Tower, so I’m just surprised. Why are you even disguised? How did you even disguise yourself like this? This is impressive. Is there magic involved? There’s gotta be magic involved. Oh, I really wanna take a look at your organs again. At your whole body, really!”

Then, she saw my expression. I didn’t know what look I wore, but it made the pieces fall into place for Vitro. “Oooooh…” She dragged out the sound for several seconds, her gaze darting between Keeper and me. “My bad!” She shrugged, before turning to Keeper. “Then again, you coulda just told me to keep it a secret, so I won’t blame myself for this.” The temperature dropped several degrees.

Keeper glared at her. If looks could kill, Vitro would have been blown to dust. “Now that the cat is out of the bag, tell me what you did to us.” There was an edge to Keeper’s voice, sharper than I had ever heard, and coated with venom.

A nervous chuckle escaped Vitro. “Funny thing is, I can’t tell you, haha… You wouldn’t really, you know, understand it. And I kinda need it to keep my livelihood. Like, if anypony were to find out, decades upon decades of research would be stolen from me.”

I joined Keeper in her glaring at Vitro. Only one explanation came to me, but it made no sense.

After almost a minute of heavy silence, Vitro let out another nervous chuckle. “Okay, I can tell you’re both mad at me. In the interest of self-preservation, I’m going to change the topic. What did you come down here for? Any reason in particular?”

Keeper narrowed her eyes, then muttered in a dangerous tone, “We are looking for a monster. It had four mismatched legs, and was much larger than an average pony.”

A sheepish smile made its home on Vitro’s face. “Oh, yeah, the chimæra.” She rubbed her crest. “Funny story… It escaped a few weeks ago. I think it made its nest somewhere near the top of the old prison in that direction.” She pointed to her left.

Keeper stood up and headed for the door. As I followed her, my mind had yet to fully catch up with the situation.

Before we were out of the door, Vitro shouted, “Lady Fell—” She covered her mouth with her hoof, trying to throw discrete glances my way. She gave a sheepish chuckle. “Uh, miss, please wait, I have some antivenom that might be of use!”

Keeper only stopped long enough to catch the thrown vial in her magic before storming out of the door.

The thin veil of denial ripped, and realisation hit me. So if she was… That meant that… But then…? I… She… My…? Her. Who? Us…? Them… When?

What.

I couldn’t make sense of the situation, and only when Keeper—that wasn’t even her real name, was it?—called out to me did I snap out of it.

Finally outside that dreadful lab, we started trotting in the direction of the other prison, heavy silence draped over us. After a while, Keeper spoke up, “I… I’m not sure where to start, Silver. I never—”

“We can’t afford to chat about things like that at the moment.” The chill in my voice surprised me. At least I was calm enough not to snap. I was angry and confused, but I would not allow myself to be killed because of it. “You can explain the depth of your lies to me later, Keeper.” I uttered her name colder than intended, though I did not correct myself.

I knew she had been keeping secrets, but not of such magnitude. Why would she—

No. I would think about this later.

I would think about this later.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

11777803
Why is this completely blank comment here?

[Etyco Filly]

11777965
Because I misclicked.