The Shadow Lands

by kento124

The Tranquil air

“That stupid genius. There’s no way lunar could read this.” Silver blurted aloud, recognizing what the stallion did. With the jumble words on the pages as they are scattered about room, it became apparent what the Alicorn was trying to do. It seemed that she thought it was a different language or a coded message and was trying to decipher meaning; which was he wanted. For the reason or meaning of the text it self was meant to be lost when one tried to decipher it with out index key.

As she continues to read, she forgot about the other two ponies in the room as the memories about the writing style floated up. The image of her younger self with Shadow, just a week before he was to leave as the apprentice to the royal mage.

Fourteen years ago,

“I know we won’t see each other for a while but if I could help anypony who's suffering then I feel I must,” the black unicorn filly said as a sad smiled appeared on his face. That smile broke her heart, she knew they would most likely not meet ever again.

“You know that's not true, once you leave for the castle. I won't ever be able to see you again,” Silver blurted out as tears started to fall as she continued, “Why do you have to go? You’re the only friend I have.” She finished as the full brunt of her emotions flooded out as she went to the ground crying.

The site causes Shadow to kneel before her trying to comfort her, “I know, but you got to have hoped that we will. You know the reason to why I'm going so please for me can you find-” she abruptly cut him off as her eye shot him a piercing look. She doesn't know if it was the thought of losing him or the anger of him running from the village but she found herself with a spark of determination. The only way that she could follow him was to join the castle guard, Silver thought.

“You are not going without me. I don't care that the royal mage is taking you. I'm going to follow you,” Silver stated bluntly as she stood. Shadow starred back with a bit of confusion as he watched her run back to her home. Silver gave a quick glance over her shoulder, seeing her only friend being walked to a carriage bound for the capital.

As she reached the front door, she quickly wiped away any lingering tears that were left. She quickly pushed the door open, as the warm air flushed over her. The home was nicely furnished, even though it was a bit small. Hearing the sound of pots and pans, she knew her father was in the kitchen making dinner. The thought that he could be making his delicious-

Xx

The memory was quickly cut off as the feeling of somepony shaking her brought her back. A bit startled by the movement, she quickly shot her head in the direction of whoever did it. She quickly found it was Applejack was the one who done it.

Seeing her gave an apologetic smile saying, “Sorry hun, but we were trying to get your attention and you seemed distracted.” Silver could see her and Twilight staring at her now, a uncomfortable feeling formed in the pit of her stomach. The sound of her stomach growling caught Silver and the adjacent mares by surprise.

“Seems ya stomach is very demanding,” Applejack commented as a giggle formed at the site of Silver looking embarrass. “So how about that lunch I promised?”

“Yes, that would be nice.” Silver said trying to sway off the embarrassment.

“Right,” she gave her a kind grin. “The kitchens is over here,” Applejack stated, turning and headed for an archway. As Silver try to follow, the question she heard stopped her.

“So miss, what did you find out?” She quickly turned to see Twilight staring at her with her intense eyes. Silver thought she saw what looked like irritated in her eyes.

“I'm sorry if we got on the wrong hoof, so let’s retry this. Hello, I'm Silver Bane,” She said closing the small gap between them, extending one of her hoof’s out. She could see the Purple mare stumbled back, a surprise look sprang upon her face. She could hear Applejack's chuckling from behind her friends actions.

Twilight cleared her throat saying, “No, I'm sorry that I gave the wrong impression. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I was just wondering what you meant by 'That stupid genius,' it sounded like you know what it said.” She asked as she shook Silvers hoof.

“Well food first, then the book,” they both heard Applejack state as they watched her foraged around in the kitchen. At the site, Twilight just shrugged as she left for the kitchen. As the feeling in her stomach grew, Silver swiftly followed the mare.

Applejack's kitchen wasn't anything special, just the basics from what Silver could see. A metal stove that look to be wood burning; as it was apparent that it was in use by the heat it gave off. What seemed to be the lack of counter space as the island was extremely cluttered apple and what she thought was cooking equipment. On the other side of the room, she could see a large wooden table and the site of Twilight sitting in one of its chairs.

She quickly made her way to the table, picking a chair near the wall. As she sat down, she saw that the table was already set for four. Finding that quite odd, “Why is the table set for four?” she asked out loud not realizing she did.

Twilight, catching this gave a simply reply, “Well she usually eats lunch with her family but, Big Macintosh is holding the stand, Apple Bloom is in school now, and Granny Smith is up stairs sleeping.” As Twilight spoke, she could hear Applejack shuffle around a bit with the clanking sound of plates. Twilight didn't let up on the conversation one bit. “Well Silver, did the books writing seem familiar? From what I hear you a close friend to Lunar’s Teacher. Such would it be all right to say she’s' your foal?”

She was slightly leaning in the chair to see what Apple jack was doing when she heard that statement. She nearly lost her balance in shock, quickly grabbing the table to steady herself. The site of Silver scrambling about confused Twilight as she watched her fumble in her chair.

As she let out a small sign as she got her self situated again, “No, she’s' not my foal, Lunar is technically Shadows foal. She used to be an orphan till he adopted her; I’m just a close friend.” As she finished explaining, Applejack came back into view holding something in a hoof. The crisp smell of apples flowed into her nose as a pie was placed at the center of the table. The site of the pie quickly caught her and Twilight’s attention almost instantly as it hit the table.

The golden-crusted pie became the center of attention as a small giggle came from Applejack, “Well. thank you for your complements. I know its not much but dig in.” Silver felt a little embarrassed, giving a small chuckle. A knife levitated with a violet aura, she noticed Twilight began to cut into the pie.

“Allow me,” she said cutting out slices of the pie, as Applejack sat down. The smell of the pie grew with each cut as the slices were passed out.

“Well, eat.” Applejack stated, stabbing her fork into the pie grabbing a large bite.

She soon fallowed reaching with the fork diving into the slice that was placed in front of her, drawing a piece of it to her mouth. Silver was quickly lost in the taste and smell of sweet apples filled the room, with its light bittersweet taste dancing on her tong. Applejack watched her devour three pieces; hold a smile while she ate. The other mares finished eating shortly after.

“I do thank you for the lunch,” Silver thanks Applejack who just gave a smile back.

“Yer welcome.”

After they finished cleaning up the left over plates, they returned to the living room to relax. Twilight sighed, forgetting the floor was still scattered with paper. She quickly tried to organize the mess, just as Silver and Applejack entered. Silver remembered the papers from before, her previous thought came to mind.

“So you thought it was a foreign language?” She asked when Twilight placed the stack of papers on the table. She responded with a simple with a nod, trying not to seem embarrass by the lack of success.

The thought that it working so well would have made him burst into uncontrolled laughter. She gave a lite chuckle, when she notices Applejack who was beside her a bit confused. Silver quieted herself down saying, “Alright, those words in that book,” she pointed to the book. “Are something me and him made up when we were just kids. It was something we used to talk to each other when,” Pausing as that sad memory lingered back. “He was learning magic. I'm surprised that he even remembered it, let alone use it for his own personal spell book.” She explained as Applejack noticed
Twilight face hoofing herself at the feudal attempts to deciphering the text.

“So how can you read it? If it’s in such a deep code that I can't even make a guess at its key?” Twilight asked with annoyance.

“I’ll show you,” she stated moving to the book, giving the motion the other two mares to join her. As they hovered around the book, she began to explain the writing, “Well it’s a bit confusing but the reason I could read this like second nature is that we used this in every letter he or I sent for five years.” That statement alone caused Twilight to gasp in astonishment.

“It has a funny way of working, one these symbols are punctuation that looks like glyphs. It’s to throw you off right of the bat. Second, he took the old 'A is 1; B is 2' thing and removed the zero's from the formula. So there's no ten or Twenty, you skip those when you count.”

Applejack shook her head in confusion saying, “Well ya lost me all ready.”

Silver gave a paused to her explanation as she turned to Applejack saying, “To be honest, he was the one who made it. All I did was learning is by heart. I gave up trying to understand why he dose certain things he does.” She gave Applejack a sympathetic smile. Applejack returned it.

Silver cleared her throat as she returned her explanation, “The third is the tricky part, the letters represent the base number but the deciphered letter is the sum of the first two letters but they can be ether its first, second or third count.” Applejack was beyond lost now as Twilight looked on eger to understand it. “Yes, I know that makes no sense at all. That is because any two letters could mean any other letter as each one has three numbers. Here is A's set, (A=1 A=2 A=4) so A is 6. So any of the two letters numbers sets that added together to equal A will be used in its place.” She paused to catch her breath as she let her words sink in.

She looked to Applejack, who just lifted her hooves, “I'm still lost, sorry.” The fact she was lost is not surprising for she was bit as well when he first came up with it. However, to her astonishment, Twilight got it almost instantly after the explanation.

“So C's set would be, (C=3 C=6 C=12) so C is 19. Is that correct?” Silver stared back in awe, only able to nod in replied. Twilight let out a small laugh saying, “I always been great at number and puzzles but somehow this almost shot over my head” Twilight's eyes glanced toward the clock that was mounted on the wall near the stairs. “Oh my!” she exclaimed. “Well I better be off to pick up the fillies. I promised Star that I would be there to pick her up.” She nodded before she made her way to the door saying her goodbyes.

The two mares were left in the room alone, the silence that fell between was an uneasy. “You want to know something funny?” Silver said trying to bait her to start up a conversation.

“What will that be?”

Silver lift on of her hoof's behind her head saying, “Well everything I just told twilight, was exactly, 'word for word' for the way he explained it to me.” She finished with a lite chuckle.

The mares’ eyes squinted as her next question was, “But you said that it was like second nature to ya to read?” Silver felt a bit tense by the stare.

“Well, yeah, but that is because he put a deception filter in the first few words,” Pointed out the word with her hoof. “If you say the counter words in your min or out loud, it unraveled all the other words so you can read it or so he told me. To be honest, most of these stuff shots right past me as well.” She gave a light laugh hoping to clear the air.

She could see Applejack's face was scurnching up, Silver worried that she upset her. “Are-” the mare bursting into laughter quickly cut her off before she could say anything. She stood there utterly confused by her actions, just sat there staring.

“Haaa, Ah'm sorry,” she manage to say, trying to stop her own laughter, “It’s just thought you were going all brainy on me. The fact that you sound so convincing when you explained it, even though don't under stand it. The fact you don't even need to understand that key thing...haha...A just can't help but laugh.” She finished trying to catch her breath. Feeling the uneasiness leaving the room, she let out a small laugh of her own.

“The funny thing is that he tells you that in the first sentience, as well the counter words.” She stated when they both simmered down.

“Really, so what’s the counter word?” Applejack asked impatiently, smiling as she waited and answer.

“Well it’s a phrase I used back when we kids, I'll always be in the shade.”

“Well...think you should have told Twilight about it,” Applejack said looking back at the door.

“Well I was but I kind of lost in the moment.” She gave her a halved sided smirk with a laugh.

With whatever tension in the room cut they quickly got lost in their conversation. She was enjoying her company, as did Applejack. She was explaining how Ponyville work around there winter wrap up a few years ago. “So ya, we all started to fallow Twi’s instruction and we manage to finish. It was some nifty organizing Twilight did,” she finished crossing her front hooves.

“That all sounded awesome but I've been wondering. Where is your greenhouse?”

“A green what?” She could see that her question had stumped her. After the realization of her question came, she had forgotten that this seemed to be a different place than Shalin.

Silver sighed at the fact saying, “Sorry, being a...long away from home, culture shock kind of gets to you.” She paused as to gather her thoughts when she saw Applejack's sad expression.

“It’s alright. You know ah left home once. Left it for the big city, trying to find out just who ah was, ended up feeling so outta place, Ah just didn't fit in. some many thing were just too different for it to feel like home.” Applejack words were comforting to hear.

“Thank you, but just being on a farm makes it feel at bit like home. Do you mind if I looked at your apple orchard?”

Applejack just gave her a simple smile, “Sure if you want ah could show ya around if ya'll like?”

Silver could only say, “Thank you.” She felt safe being on a farm, from all of her joyful memories of working at the one near her village. Being in in a completely different world helped to. Applejack showed her through the kitchen, to a door that sat near the table ate lunch at. Silver didn’t notice it until now. The rickety old door has seen better days as it seemed to be nearly falling off its hinges. Applejack gave a light laugh when she notices Silver staring at the door frame.

“Ya, Ah kind of broke the door when ah rushed out to save you and the filly,” Applejack's grinned at her own remarks. When the orchard came into view of, Silver froze in her tracks at the sheer size of the farm. The tall and long rows of apple trees as far as her eyes could see. The air that swayed through the orchard was so clean.

She stared across the fields stating, “To be back on a farm, it’s so calming.” She felt safe as if the whole outside world didn't even exist. Just being here in this world just felt so right.

“So it’s a mighty fine site, you said that being on a farm is a bit homey. So did ya grow up on one?” Her words brought her back from the wonderful daydream.

No, I grew up in a small remote village. There was a small farm on the edge of town, picked up working there to earn a few bits. The couple who ran it ended up being great friend with my dad.” She paused as the thought of him crept upon her with the feeling of dread.

Applejack didn't seemed to notice her changing mood, “Ah know its hard being away from ones folks. It’s like missing a part of you.” Being back up on a farm was dragging up some painful memories, as she stared across orchard.

“Applejack, I want to tell you something.”

Comments

[kento124]

Ok due to me not havin internet i wont be able to post any new chapter for a wile. Sorry but i am working on the story, ill just be a huge update when it comes and ill release a manifest on what i did.