> The Shadow of Mortals
>  by Silverlinings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Chapter One
_______________________________________________
As the snow fell on the quiet village of Stableton, the sun began to rise through the thin, white layer of clouds and into the sky. The town slowly began to come to life, as every pony began their daily routines, of opening their shops, and going to work. Small fillies and colts danced around the main square, sliding on the thin ice, on their way to school. The higher the sun got in the air, the more ponies became visible, doing the many various things that kept the town running.
In a small house, on the edge of town, a small filly was slowly waking up. She hadn't slept well that night, and had fallen asleep very late. A loud knock came at her door.
"Kali! You'll be late for school! Hurry up!" The filly's mother yelled through the blue, wooden door.
The purple earth pony sat bolt up and looked at the clock. It read 8-o-clock. She only had fifteen minutes to get to class! She grabbed her saddle bag, ran out of her bedroom, down the stairs and out of the house. She began sprinting at top speeds towards the school house.
She was only at the square when she heard the bell ring in the distance. She was late. The filly's teacher made sure to remind her as she entered the class room.
"Kaleidoscope Coral. You're late," She called as the young pony took her seat.
"Sorry, Miss Appleworm," Kali blushed as some other ponies looked at her and giggled, for this wasn't the first time Kaleidoscope (or Kali for short) was late for class.
"Hush," Miss Appleworm called from the front of the class, before returning her attention to Kali, "Yes, well, be sure to see me after class, dear." Miss Appleworm was an older unicorn, with a dull, grey coat, and a light orange mane, that was put up in a bun. Her cutie mark was a shining apple, with a white star on the corner. She was a nice, and caring pony, but was a stickler for the rules.
"Yes, Miss Appleworm," Kali looked down, still blushing.
"Where have you been," the unicorn colt sitting next to her whispered. He had an all black coat with a white mane, which was straight, short and went down one side, covering one of his eyes. He had deep, green eyes, which matched his cutie mark, which was a green jack-o-lantern with a white flame.
"Sleeping, Willow," she whispered back to Wailing Willow.
"Again? Why're you sleeping in so much?" he asked, quickly, "You should spend less time sleeping, and more time worrying about your blank flank. Besides, you know I can't stand one of Appleworm's lectures alone."
"Sorry, but it happened again," Kali said in a hushed yell, as she blew her green mane out of her face. It was a frizzled mess with a natural yellow streak, that was in tangles because she didn't have time to brush it.
"Hang on, I've got it," Willow said as his horn glowed green. Kali's mane began untangling and reweaving, until it was her usual, tasteful, set of curls.
"Thanks, " Kali felt around her mane to make sure it was all good.
"Now what's been happening? Why can't you sleep?" Willow tilted his head, with a confused look.
Kali sighed. She had explained it before, but it never seemed to get through to Willow. "It's like I said: I was trying to sleep last night, but I kept having those nightmares, the same nightmares. For weeks!" she shouted.
Willow made a hushing sound, and eye'd Miss Appleworm who didn't seem to notice, "Alright, what're these dreams about?"
"That's just it, I don't know," She began to get frustrated with herself. "It's all fuzzy. There were flashes of some pony I didn't recognize. She was a purple unicorn, and... I can't remember what else." She thought harder, trying to figure it all out. "There was a voice, yelling something that was too muffled to make out. But it was rhythmic, like chanting. And..." She thought some more, "you were there, too, Willow."
Willow immediately looked up at her, "I was?"
"Yeah, and you seemed kind of important for whatever the whole dream was about."
Willow looked down at his desk. He could tell he was blushing slightly, so he flipped his mane to the other side to hide his face, "That's... cool..." he eventually said.
"Is there a problem?" Miss Appleworm called to the back of the room, "I'm hearing a lot of chatter."
"No, Miss Appleworm." Kali said.
The two friends sat through the rest of class in a semi silence, whispering every now and then to each other, to see if they understood the lecture.
After class, Kali met with Miss Appleworm. "Dear," Miss Appleworm began, "is there a reason you're always late? Is something wrong at home? Can I help in anyway?" Her voice was soft and caring.
"No, Miss Appleworm," Kali lied, "everything's fine. I was just sleeping in."
"Alright," the teacher didn't seem totally convinced. "Well, as a punishment for repeatedly missing class, I need you to run a simple errand for me."
"Of course, Miss." Kali was happy she only had to run an errand.
"As you know, when I'm not teaching, I like to bake pastries for my daughter's small shop. Well the captain of our local guard ordered a batch of cinnamon and oat cookies, and I just need you to deliver them to him." Her horn glowed a dull orange and a small paper sack floated up from behind her desk and towards Kali.
"That's all? "Kali asked. She smiled, and took the bag, which she tucked into her saddlebag, "Consider in done."
"Thank you, dear," Miss Appleworm smiled. "Now run along."

__________________________________________________


Kali left the school teacher to her work, and began trotting down the path towards the training field. When she got there, several earth ponies and unicorns were lifting weights, and pegasi were flying laps around the arena.
"C'mon, I wanna see some hussle," yelled a pegasus who was standing on the edge of the track, to all of the other ponies, "Don't let the cold stop you. You want to be apart of my ranks, don't you?" He looked up specifically at the pegasi, "I want your lap time cut in half by the end of the week!" The pegasus had a white coat with yellow eyes. His mane and tail were red and yellow with a black streak. Since he flew so much, his mane and tail were swept back. His wings and ears had red tips, and his back left hoof was red. He wore yellow flight goggles around his neck, and his cutie mark was a golden shield with a silver outline, with an off centered red saw blade, behind it.
"Hey Silverlinings," Kali called as she galloped across the field towards the white stallion, the snow crunching under her feet.
The white pegasus stallion turned to look at her, "Hey, Squirt." He smiled, and tussled her mane, "What's up?" The captain turned back to keep an eye on the royal guard trainees.
"Miss Appleworm just asked me to bring these to you," She pulled out the bag of cookies.
"Aw, sweet," Silverlinings raised his two front hooves in delight. He was about to say something else, when a brown pegasus crashed to the ground next to him.
"Burnout? What's wrong?" Silverlinings turned to look at the mare who just crashed.
Borealis Burnout was gasping for breath after the crash. Her Orange and yellow mane was in a spiky mess. Her winged comet cutie mark was scuffed, and her feathers were ruffled. She eventually managed to find her voice, "M'lady asked me to send for you. It's important."
Silverlinings' face took a serious visage, and he put his goggles on, "Alright, thanks." He turned and looked at Kali, "You can just drop those by my house." He reached under his wing and pulled out the key to his house, which he tossed to her. With that, he took off, so fast it left a vivid trail of red, yellow and black.

_________________________________________________


Silverlinings landed with a small rumble, and immediately bowed before Lady Diamond Jubilee. She was a very old earth pony, with a dull gray coat, and a white mane. Her cutie mark was a large diamond with regal, blue streamers on either side of it. Diamond Jubilee's family was of noble blood, and had founded Stableton. They were all known for being as benevolent and kind as possible, and Diamond Jubilee was no exception. Because of how kind and generous she was, no pony ever argued with her rule. 
"M'lady," Silverlinings said, standing up, "you sent for me?"
"Yes Captain, and I'm glad you got here so fast." She smiled at him, and walked across the small roof plaza, on the castle which the royal family presided. She picked up a watering can with her teeth and began watering some lovely red and purple flowers, which were kept alive in the cold conditions, using magic. "If you could just give me a minute," She said, watering can still in her mouth.
"But, M'lady," Silverlinings was slightly off put, "Borealis Burnout said this was important." He didn't understand why she was so calm.
"Oh, but it is," Diamond Jubilee responded, as she set down the watering can. "But it's not an emergency," she chortled, "I was just wondering if you could help me with a little something."
"Of course, M'lady," Silverlinings bowed again.
"As you may know," Diamond Jubilee walked to the edge of the plaza, and looked out over Stableton, "this peaceful town was started by my ancestors, some time ago, and for a recent time, Stableton has had some... unrest," her face grew slightly darker as her tone shifted.
"Yes M'lady." Silverlinings agreed.
"We've had some problems with savage creature attacks, such as the timber wolves and that nasty baby hydra," Diamond Jubilee shook her head, trying to get the image out of her mind. Silverlinings simply listened. "We've also had some issue with ponies going missing..." She trailed off, because as she turned around she noticed Silverlinings looking rather forelorned. His niece, whom he had been the legal guardian of after his brother's untimely passing, was one of the ponies who went missing. "I'm sorry, Captain, I forgot that..." She trailed off again, as the pegasus gave a small sigh.
"It's quite alright, M'lady," the stallion stood erect, trying to recompose himself, "Now what do you ask of me, M'lady?"
"Well," the mare continued, as though nothing was the matter, "I have contacted Canterlot, and Princess Celestia is sending her top student, Twilight Sparkle, along with a few of her friends to help with the issue."
Silverlinings nodded, to signify that he was following.
"And I simply need you to show them around. Give them an idea of their surroundings, and make them feel welcome," She smiled.
Silverlinings gave her a questionable look, "But M'lady, I mean no disrespect, but I have an entire squad of new recruits to train."
She chortled, again, "I am sure you can get Burnout to train them. After all, that's what a leader does: delegates the smaller tasks to others," She said, hinting at that's what she was doing to Silverlinings.
"Right," Burnout was Silverlinings number one officer, and he trusted her, completely, to take care of this task.
"Well then," Diamond Jubilee smiled, "What're you waiting for? Get you flank in gear," she hollered, chuckling to herself.
Silverlinings gave her a puzzled look, before taking off. He always had wondered about Diamond Jubilee. He suspected that in her old age, she may have been a few ships short of a fleet. He shrugged it off though, because one: he could never say something like that to such a kind pony, and two: she was, technically, his boss.
> Chapter Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

		Chapter Two





As Kali trotted done the winding path leading out of town, she thought more on the strange dreams that had plagued her sleep for roughly under a month. The strange mare she had seen, the hardly audible chanting, and Willow. What was Willow doing in her dreams? She thought fondly of her best friend. She cared deeply about him and gave a small smile at the notion that he might be important in her life, somehow. When they first started school, several years prior, every pony began getting their cutie marks fairly quickly. Stableton was known to have well-rounded ponies come out of their education system, with a good knowledge of what they wanted to be. All that is, except Kali. By the standards the other fillies and colts set, she was three years behind. No one seemed to notice, until she was the only pony left in the school without her cutie mark. Every pony made fun of her, calling her blank flank and such. Wailing Willow was the only exception.
Willow was a relatively shy pony, who seemed to get along with everyone. He had no real enemies, no quarrels with a rival. He was simply a quiet, kind colt, with a good head on his shoulders. he was one of the first ponies in class to get his cutie mark, a jack-o-lantern. He knew his favorite holiday was Nightmare Night, and he wanted to make each one as memorable as possible. 
Kali's mind began to trail off, thinking of the first time Willow had ever talked to her...

Kali sat at her desk, scribbling on some notes. Class had just ended, and she was getting the last few sentences from a slide show on why some ponies are born with wings or horns, and others aren't. As she rose to leave, another pony pushed her back down into her seat. He was dark blue, with a white and sky blue mane and tail. His cutie mark was a pair of swim goggles.
"And where do you think you're goin'?" he said with a sort of Neanderthal drawl.
"Breaker, why can't you just leave me alone?" Kali sighed, in an unamused tone.
"Listen, blank flank," Wave Breaker continued as though he didn't hear her, "every other pony's got their cutie mark, 'cept you." He poked her in the chest forcefully to illustrate his point. "You gotta stay here, 'til you're as smart as me," he puffed his chest out proud at the notion of what he wanted to do with his life. He was a bull-headed individual, who's only thoughts were to swim, and bully those weaker than him. He was the equivalent of a shark. The only difference however was that sharks ate chum, rather than smelled of it.
Kali just glanced at the ground, a crestfallen look on her face. She knew she was smarter than Breaker and his meat-headed friends, but she just lacked the courage to stand up to him.
"What's wrong, Blank Flank," Breaker chuckled at his prejudice joke, "can't you even articlate?"
"Articulate." Kali replied softly.
"What was that?" Breaker looked both confused and slightly angry.
"Articulate," Kali repeated, a little louder. "The word you're trying to use is articulate."
"Why, you little..." Being quick to anger and physical abuse, Breaker pushed Kali out of her chair, and stood over her. Since class was over, Miss Appleworm was already gone and could not stop this.
Luckily, a colt with a black coat stepped in between Breaker and Kali. The colt was half the size of Breaker, but stood ground. "That's enough, Breaker." He said, stamping his hoof on the ground.
Breaker took a step back. He couldn't remember this little unicorn ever speaking, let alone standing up against some pony twice his size. He shook the confusion off and looked at the other colt with malice and contempt, "And what're you gonna do 'bout it, Willow?" he said, pushing Willow backwards.
Willow recovered quickly and said, "I'm a unicorn, and I know all sorts of magic that can do awful things to any pony who deserves it." he stood, hoping Breaker wouldn't call his bluff.
Luckily, he did not. The large colt looked scared for a moment, but immediately went into a passive-looking mood, "Pffft, you're just protectin' your fillyfriend. Guess I can respect that." He turned and trotted away.
Willow wasn't sure if it was because he had intimidated Breaker, or if he really had lost interest, but he didn't care. "C'mon," He turned and helped Kali up. "Let's get out of here, before he comes back with some of his cronies."
"Thanks," Kali gave a small smile, "My name's Kali."
"Nice to meet you, Kali," Willow responded, returning the smile, "My name's Willow..."

Kali smiled and looked at the path before her. This was the same path she and Willow had taken that day. It led south, out of town, around a large forest, and back into town on the west side. She stopped by the tree line, and slipped into the brush. She turned and saw a smaller path leading into the moderately sized forest. She began heading down that path, reminiscing still of her time with Willow. She didn't even notice when she arrived at her destination. She accidentally stepped under a small waterfall, which shocked her out of her trance. She stepped behind the water, and spit out some water, her teeth chattering, because of the cold weather.
"Nice one." Called a familiar voice. Willow was sitting near the waterfall. He had been waiting for Kali to show up. On the backside of the waterfall was a small cavern, lit by some lamps and lanterns. This was a small, out of the way place where Kali and Willow came to hang out. Being each others only real friend, they paired up on every class assignment they could. This is where they came to work on anything, so that no other pony would bother them. They had discovered it the first day they met, and it had worked since.
"Thanks," Kali said, sarcastically, wringing out her mane.
"Of course." While Willow was extremely conservative in public, he felt comfortable around Kali, and could speak his mind freely, "So what did Miss Appleworm have you do?"
"Just deliver something," Kali answered, shaking off any water left, "no big deal."
"Alright," Willow replied, walking over to his saddle bag, and pulling out some papers with his magic. He set them down at a table they had brought in, about a year ago, and began to look over them. "So," he said, "How should we conclude this essay?"
Kali's heart skipped a beat. In all the other things swirling and churning in her mind, she had completely forgotten about the essay they had to turn in by the beginning of next week. "Oh! Umm..." Her mind was still semi focused on her dreams, the rest was blank. She couldn't even remember what the assignment was supposed to be about. "Could you," she said, sheepishly, "Could you remind me what we're writing about?"
Willow sighed with a smile and looked over at his friend, "Your mind isn't in it today, is it?"
Kali shook her head with a meek smile.
"Alright," His horn glowed green and the two chairs in the small cave shifted so they were facing across from each other. He sat down in one and patted the seat to the other, "C'mon, let's talk about it."
Kali took they other seat, and looked at the table, "What about the assignment?"
"We'll finish it later," Willow reassured, "Now c'mon, now that we have some time to talk, what's on your mind? Is it those dreams?"
Kali nodded, "But nothing's changed. It's the same thing every night."
"Yeah," Willow said, thinking. "there's a muffled voice, some pony you don't know-"
"Right, a purple mare," Kali cut off, "and.. and you're there, of course."
Willow's heart jumped a beat or two when she said this, but didn't show it, "And is that all?"
"Well yeah," Kali thought for a moment, "But it's all too vivid and blurry. I can't remember anything else."
"Well," Willow began, piecing together his thoughts. "It's not my specialty, but I read somewhere that dreams may have prominent meaning to daily life." Kali nodded, listening to Willow's words. "And you're sure you don't know the mare?" He asked.
"Positive," Kali said, slightly exasperated, for how many times she had answered the question.
"Well," Willow thought some more, "maybe you're going to meet this mare soon."
Kali mused the prospect that her brain knew what was going to happen before she did. This just made her head hurt, and she asked Willow, "How can my brain know something, without realizing it knows it?"
"Hmm," Willow contemplated the question, but eventually changed subject, "Well how about the chanting? Did any of the words come out very clear?"
Kali just sighed and shook her head, "Nope."
"Any hard consonants?"
"No."
"Any familiar phonetic patterns?"
"No."
"Any form of inflection?"
"No, Willow."
"Then how do you know it was chanting?" Willow was confused on how something could be considered chanting, if there were no patterns in the speech or inflection at any certain point.
"Well, I..." Kali trailed off. How did she know it was chanting? "It had a sort of rhythm to it."
Willow sighed, "Aren't rhythm and inflection the same thing?"
Kali couldn't quite explain it. "Just trust me," She said, "it was chanting."
"Alright," Willow continued on, "what about..." He faltered. He didn't know what to make of himself inside of Kali's dreams. He must have been prominent or important to her in the dream, for her to remember him and only two other things.
"What about you?" Kali guessed at what her friend was going to say. "I don't know."
The two sat there, deep in thought. One thought about their lives together as friends up to this point, and where it would go from here. What they didn't realize was that the other was thinking the Exact. Same. Thing.





Silverlinings stood at the train station.  He shivered as other pegasi above began moving storm clouds over head. Silverlinings grumbled a few choice obscenities under his breath at the timing of the weather crew. He had been waiting for half an hour, and the train he was waiting for had been delayed due to the conditions of the weather. Supposedly, Princess Celestia herself had sent her star pupil to help with the problems Stableton had been having.
"Pfft," Silverlinings huffed out loud, "If Celestia really did care about this old dead end of a town, we would have heard from her ages ago." Stableton was located in a crater, surrounded by mountain ranges. With no way of reaching it on hoof, very few ponies knew it was even there. Silverlinings had never seen Stableton on a map, even though he looked right where it was supposed to be. He wasn't a bitter stallion by any means, but when Celestia's name came up in conversation, he grew slightly sour. However, now he was forced to accommodate for the pampered pet of the Princess and all her little friends. "Never should have moved out of Cloudsdale." Silverlinings said through chattering teeth.
Several minutes later the howl of a train's horn became audible. The large, steam powered locomotive came to a grinding halt in front of the shivering pegasus.
"'Bout time," he chided, as the train poured hot steam that stopped his shivering.
The doors slowly opened up, and he expected four to six, extremely high maintenance mares to stride out of the locomotive, but instead, he was met by one extremely high maintenance mare, and her five friends.
"Oooohhh," Came a dramatic voice, as the steam cleared from the platform, causing the return of the cold sting of the air, "This cold is simply unbearable." The mare was a white unicorn, with a styled mane. She was lugging several bags, which she began going through as soon as the cold hit her, "And I didn't pack anything nice, for such harsh conditions. Oh, this is unacceptable Twilight, we must return to Ponyville this instant, so I can grab something more appropriate." She whined to her friends in the train.
"No can do, Rarity," came a rugged, but smooth voice as an orange earth mare stepped onto the landing, "We're here now, no sense goin' back f'r somethin' like a sweater. Besides, it ain't that cold." Although she could see her breath, this obviously working-class pony gave no sign of being cold.
"I don't know AJ," came a bouncy voice, as a pink mare appeared in between the first two, "Rarity is kinda delicate. Although she did handle herself against those diamond dogs. Then again, that was because of her whining. But she can also give faces with cold looks. LOADS colder than this. Like that," She shouted, pointing a hoof at the white mare, who was giving an immensely cold and unwelcoming stare. As soon as the pink earth pony pointed at her, she looked slightly surprised, and turned away from the overly enthusiastic mare, with a 'hmph' sound. "Oooooooooh," The pink mare continued, shivering, "I forgot how cold your cold shoulders were. Thanks a lot for reminding me-"
"Pinkie," yelled the orange mare, who had been trying to get her attention since she started her tangent, "list'n Sugarcube, why don' ya go see if you can find the pony who's supposed to meet us here, kay?"
"Oh that's easy," Pinkie pointed right at Silverlinings who was in shock that these were the ponies he was supposed to meet, "That guy's supposed to help us."
"And how can you be certain?" Rarity questioned, eyeing the Stallion up and down distastefully.
"Easy," Pinkie appeared behind the now startled Pegasus and pushed him up next to the other two, "He's been watching us since we got here. So he could either be our chauffeur, or a creeper!" She grinned at the two mares who were both confused.
"Um..." Rarity hesitated, "Yes, hello, sir. Sorry about our," she looked at Pinkie, "friend."
Silverlinings shook the surprise off and gave a warm smile, "It's alright. I think your friend hit the nail on the head, though. I'm here to help Twilight Sparkle, whom I think you called to earlier. You must be the friends who were going to accompany her."
"Eyup," The orange mare replied, tipping her hat, "Name's Applejack. That there's Pinkie Pie," she continued, pointing to the pink mare who was paying little attention as she looked around the train station, "and this's Rarity," She nudged the white mare.
"I'm glad to make your acquaintance, ladies," the Stallion answered politely. "I am Silverlinings, Captain of the local guard, and I've been appointed to give you a tour of the town along with making you as comfortable as possible while you're helping us with our problems."
"Of course," Said a fourth mare, of a violet hue, as she stepped out of the train. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and let me say that we are very thankful for your services," She gave a grateful gesture, which was a mixture between a nod and a bow.
Silverlinings nodded in return and asked, "I thought there would be more of you. Is any pony still in the train?"
A yellow pony poked her head out from behind the door frame on the train car, and gave a shy smile. "Hello, Silverlinings." she said, in a quiet voice.
Silverlinings' eyes lit up, "Fluttershy?" he asked, moving closer to the car. "Is that you?" He smiled, "I haven't seen you since flight camp!" As he got closer, instead of retreating in fear like she normally would, the yellow pegasus stepped out from behind the car door and stood straight as she talked to Silverlinings.
"How have you been?" She asked, still in her small voice.
"Well I've become the captain of the guard to a small, dinky town, so... can't complain." He smiled as he and Fluttershy exchanged a quick hug, "And how've you been?"
"Well I have great friends," She said looking towards the others, "and I care for lots of animals back home, in Ponyville."
"That's great." Silverlinings replied. "So," He continued looking over at Twilight, "is that every pony, or..."
He trailed off as he looked back at the train. Standing in the door frame was a cyan mare, with a mane of varying colors. She had a smirk on, and was looking Silverlinings in the eye. "Thought I heard your voice, Sil." She called in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone. She walked towards him and stared at him, smirk still on her muzzle.
"R- Rainie?" Silverlinings' eyes were wide in surprise, but he had a smile on.
"Since when do you call me for help?" She giggled slightly and walked past him, brushing his nose with her tail, on purpose.
Silverlinings wrinkled his nose, holding in a sneeze. "Hey," he said, turning around to look at her, "it wasn't my idea, but orders are orders."
"Sil?" questioned Rarity, looking at Apple Jack.
"Rainie?" Apple Jack returned the questioning look to Rarity.
"Orders? Since when do you take orders from any pony," Rainbow Dash turned back and walked straight towards Silverlinings, "Last time I checked, you always needed to be on top, every pony underneath you, right?" She gave a subtle wink to Silverlinings before walking around him again. Silverlinings' face turned a slight pink. He turned around to object at Rainbow Dash, but was interrupted by Twilight.
"Umm," She started, "Not to interject, but the air is rather chilly, and I was hoping we could get a move on and thaw out Pinkie Pie." She gestured towards the mare who had managed to freeze completely in a block of ice, mid hop.
"Right," Silverlinings said, gathering his thoughts. He picked up all of their bags in his saddle bags on his back, and looked at the six guests. "Please follow me."
> Chapter Three
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Chapter Three




"And this suite will be for Miss Sparkle." Silverlinings concluded, as he finished showing the six guests to their rooms in the royal castle.
"Please," Twilight said, turning around and looking at their gracious host, "You can just call me Twilight."
"If you say so, Mi-" He caught himself, "Twilight." He cleared his throat. "I'll leave you all to get settled. We can begin tomorrow morning." He turned and left down a flight of stairs.
As soon as she was sure he was out of ear shot, Rainbow Dash jumped onto a bed and stretched. "This is gonna be great."
"Um, why?" Fluttershy asked.
"Oh um," Rainbow thought quickly, "it's nothing. Just this cool crib they gave us." She looked around while speaking, "Almost as cool as me. Well, I should probably get some sleep before we start this." She quickly rolled over so she wasn't facing the other ponies and pretended to snore loudly.
"She's right girls," Twilight said to the others, "We're gonna need our sleep."





Willow and Kali were walking down the winding path leading back into town. They had just finished a conversation in their secret hangout, and were heading back. When they reached the main road they decided to take separate paths back home, due to the fact that their most previous interaction had ended on a particularly awkward note.
"Kay, see you tomorrow." Willow said as he and Kali parted ways. He was now trotting down the road on his own. As he moved, the wind started to pick up. It wasn't howling, but it began to whistle in his ears. Through the wind, Willow heard a faint voice.
"Huh." He turned around, and looked around. No other pony was within ear shot. Willow shrugged it off and kept walking. After several minutes, the wind began growing stronger. Willow heard the faint voice again.

Willow...

"Who's there," Willow looked in all directions, but no pony became visible. The gust was growing stronger and it stung his eyes, making it difficult to see.

Willow...

The colt glanced in all directions. The voice was getting louder, clearly calling his name. He lit his horn up, trying to get a better look through the gale.

Willow...

The unicorn jumped. While the voice was still hushed, it felt like who ever was whispering was right next to him.
As he turned to see who it was, he was met with a tall, looming figure. This dark pony had black, leathery wings, not like the feathered ones of the pegasi. His eyes were a cold, piercing steel grey. He simply stood and stared at Willow, unfazed by the gusts of wind. He had a red, silver and black cape billowing behind him. However, as soon as Willow blinked, this strange stallion vanished.
Instead, Willow could see a brownish tan blur, slowly moving towards him. "Willow!" It shouted.
Willow recognized this voice. "Sis?" He yelled back, galloping with all of his might against the roaring winds. Soon enough, the blur came into focus. A brown earth mare was making her way through the gale towards Willow. "Cornucopia!" He shouted, finally reaching her.
Cornucopia had a light yellow mane and tail, and a cutie mark for her namesake. She looked sternly at Willow and yelled above the wind, "I've been looking everywhere for you! Come on! Let's get home!" She turned and starting walking in the other direction. Willow followed.

As soon as the two of them were back inside and out of the cold, Cornucopia turned and glared at Willow. Willow looked down, sheepishly. After a little time for silence, Cornucopia asked sternly, "What have I told you about staying out when the weather's like this?"
Willow hesitated. Eventually, all he said was, "I'm sorry."
Cornucopia's face softened. She no longer looked angry, but slightly saddened. She leaned down to talk to Willow, face to face. "Hey," she started, "I am sorry for yelling, it's just..." She stopped to think about what she was going to say. This was still a sore subject. "When Mom and Dad disappeared, that left me in charge of you. If something were to happen to you, I couldn't live with myself. I was just worried. Ok?" She smiled, trying to get some positive feedback.
Willow sniffled, and a single tear dripped off his muzzle. It had been years since their parents disappeared. They weren't even around to see him get his cutie mark. His older sister was more of a mother to him now, and they were very close.
"Come on," Cornucopia nudged Willow, trying to distract him from the harsh memories. "It's time for dinner."





Kali came home to a quiet house. She knew what this meant: her baby brothers were napping. She tread lightly, making her way into the kitchen. She saw her mother working frantically, trying to keep everything in line. She moved with great urgency around the kitchen, cleaning, cooking, and generally trying to keep the peace.
"Hey, Mom." Kali called, as she set her bag down on the dining table.
"Hello, Sweetie," Her mother replied, vigorously scrubbing at a stain on the counter.
"Do you need any help?" Kali looked around at the kitchen. It was obvious that her mother couldn't keep it all under check.
"Oh no. Thank you, though." Her mother stood up. She and her daughter looked much alike, the only differences being that her mother did not have a yellow streak in her mane, and she had a cutie mark of a rolling pin and some dough. This avid baker looked at her filly and added, "But you could go get your father and bring him down for dinner. He's in our room, watching TV."
"Sure thing Mom." Kali walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
When she got to the bedroom door, she knocked, and called, "Dad, time for dinner."
"Come on in, sweet pea." Came a hoarse voice, from the other side of the door.
Kali opened the door to find a brick red pegasus with a frizzy yellow mane and a smiling sun cutie mark laying on a bed, laughing at a program on the television to his right. "Come on," he said, patting part of the bed with his left forehoof. "this was one of my favorite programs when I was your age."
Kali smiled and sighed, "C'mon Dad. Mom says dinner is ready." She moved across the room, and pulled a folded device out of the closet.
"Oh, alright." the stallion huffed. He grabbed the remote control and turned the television off, and grabbed his glasses off the night stand. The remote and the glasses, along with everything else he would need, were all on his left side.
Kali unfolded the device and placed it next to the bed. She lifted her father up and into it. It had two wheels in the back, keeping his back hooves from hitting the ground. It also kept his right forehoof folded to his side, with another wheel extending off of the pad it rested on. Kali put her hooves on the handles in the back of the contraption, and began pushing her father out of the room.
"How you feeling today, Dad?" Kali asked.
Her father sighed, "My only good hoof is starting to go numb and a little tingly. I suspect it'll be any day now." Kali's father suffered from Motor Neuron Disease. MND attacks the cells in your body allowing muscle movement. Slowly over time, you begin to lose the ability to use your extremities. In serious cases, it attacks the heart, destroying the pumping muscles around the organ, resulting in death. However, the pegasus showed no signs of this, which made him hopeful. Kali took her father down the stairs, one step at a time. He used his only good hoof to keep himself from falling down the stairs. Kali's family weren't exactly rich, so they couldn't afford to have their home outfitted for the handicapped.
When they successfully made it to the landing, Kali wheeled the stallion into the kitchen, and parked him at the dinner table. The kitchen was immensely cleaner then Kali had last seen it, but her mother was still working hard.
"Afternoon, Hun." the red pony called as his wife approached him.
"Hello, Darling." She smiled and planted a kiss on his cheek.
"Thank you, Kali." Her mother turned to her, "Now can you go get your brothers?"
Kali skipped out of the kitchen and down the hall, but stopped, as she approached the family room. She didn't want to startle her brothers, so she moved slowly into the family room, and approached their pen.
The twin foals napped contently, both unaware of their sister's presence. The twins, Apollo and Helios, were almost identical, each a red pegasus with a green mane, the only difference being that Helios had his father's light blue eyes, while Apollo had his mother's brilliant green eyes.
"Hey, you two." Kali said, softly, "Time to wake up." She watched as the two foals gave cute yawns and rubbed their eyes. They looked up at her, big smiles on their faces. "C'mon, you guys hungry?"





Silverlinings sat alone, in his dining room picking at his salad, but he just didn't have the heart to eat. An empty chair sat in front of him. There was a time when he'd have company, making the other chair necessary. He would invite his mare friends over for a romantic dinner, and on a couple separate occasions, his colt friends. However, most recently, one of the most precious things to enter his life would sit across from him: his niece. Marigold Mist had been the world to Silverlinings. They had a strong relationship, as if he were her own father... Her father... Mercury Mist hadn't disappeared like the other ponies going missing. Silverlinings never had the heart to tell Marigold what happened to her father. He went out for drinks with his friends, like he normally did on Fridays. However, on that same night, there was an all out brawl at the bar. Mercury went missing. The police recovered the body two weeks later, floating face down in a river, a mile out of town.
All of these thoughts made Silverlinings sick to his stomach. He looked down at his plate, and noticed there were tears speckling his salad. He pushed the plate away and went upstairs to go to bed, leaving his dinner untouched. Just like last night, and the night before that, and the night before that.
> Chapter Four
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

		Chapter Four




Twilight and her five friends headed down the flight of stairs, from their quarters into the main hall of the castle. When they arrived they saw a long table in the center of the hall, with chairs only occupying one end. Sitting at the very end of the table was Diamond Jubilee, looking over some documents. 
Silverlinings stood near the royal pony, but kept his distance, as to not disturb her. He was wearing a uniform that he was supposed to wear everywhere, but instead only wore for serious and usually inauspicious occasions. The uniform was a set of armor, consisting of silver gauntlets, tunic and helm, each with intricate golden designs. On the front of the chest plate was the insignia of Stableton: a sapphire horseshoe emblazoned with more golden decorations. His helm held no plume, unlike those of the typical royal guards, who had large blue plumes which stood out to easily.
Silverlinings cleared his throat as the six mares entered the hall.
"Hmm?" Diamond Jubilee looked up from her papers and examined the room. Upon seeing her guests, she got up and trotted over to them, smiling, "And you must be Miss Twilight Sparkle! I'm Diamond Jubilee, and I'm in charge of Stableton. Sorry for not meeting you yesterday when you arrived, but I had other matters to take care of."
"Oh, it's fine," Twilight reassured, "Are you ready to begin briefing us on what's going on?"
"Of course, of course," Jubilee began moving back to the table. "Everything that has happened so far I've personally documented." Her and the six other ponies sat around the end of the vast table and began going through the notes.

Silverlinings stood at attention, looking straight ahead. He blinked slowly, in tune with his breathing. He remained totally calm, ready for anything that could befall his superior.
"Boo!" Said a hushed whisper right in Silverlinings' ear. He jumped in surprise, his heart beat accelerating. He turned to see Borealis Burnout, wearing her armor set (the only difference being the afore mentioned plume) and snickering.
Silverlinings rolled his eyes and returned to his position as vigil. Out of the corner of his mouth he asked, "What're you doing here?"
Borealis smirked, jokingly, "Glad to see you, too."
"Shouldn't you be training the new recruits?" Silverlinings continued.
"I delegated it," Burnout replied, mockingly taking position next to him, puffing out her chest in a poor imitation of her superior officer and friend.
Silverlinings smiled and face hoofed. He should have known Burnout would 'delegate' any work he tossed at her.
"So what did I miss? Who're those ponies?" Burnout asked stretching on the tips of her hooves to get a better view of the table.
"They're here to help with the town's problem. Ya know, missing ponies and such," Silverlinings looked around at the new ponies. Although he knew Fluttershy well, and Rainbow Dash even more so, he was still on the fence about the four others. Pinkie Pie seemed harmless enough, although she had that certain glow about her. She seemed... too harmless. Apple Jack appeared to be an honest, hard working mare. Rarity, although a little high strung, was generally polite. Then there was Twilight. She seemed to be nice, patient and willing to help. Silverlinings had thought that any representative sent by Celestia would have been stuck up, but it appeared that he was wrong.
"Cap!" Burnout yelled in his ear.
"Huh?" Silverlinings shook his head and turned to look at the mare who had disrupted his concentration. 
"You alright, Cap'n?" Burnout tilted her head, "You look kinda spaced out."
"Just lost in thought," He answered.

Diamond Jubilee flipped through her papers, giving Twilight Sparkle and her friends a basic run down. "Now then," She started, "Stableton has had trouble for years, mainly caused by two major issues." She separated the papers into two stacks while speaking, "We can handle all of the monster raids. The timber wolf numbers are dwindling and the parasprites don't seem to be repopulating fast enough, so we have the advantage." She tapped one pile with her hoof. "However," she turned to the other stack, "this is where I hope you could be of some assistance. "
"What's your other issue?" Twilight skimmed the top page of the second stack.
"We've had ponies go missing, leaving no evidence of where they've gone." Jubilee answered. "We're suspecting kidnap."
"What makes ya say that?" Applejack piped up.
"Well. none of the missing ponies have had any obvious motives for simply leaving without so much as a goodbye." Jubilee answered.
"Can you think of any pony who would do such a dreadful thing?" Rarity inquired.
"I'm afraid not." Jubilee turned to the unicorn.
"Well then, we're just gonna have to find out who!" Rainbow Dash shouted, confidently.
"Oh, that would be wonderful!" Diamond Jubilee's eyes lit up.
"Any idea where we could get started?" Twilight asked.
"I'm sorry, but no," The older mare looked genuinely apologetic. "We have no leads. We've tried using magic to track, but no pony in town knows anything strong enough."
"Hmm, well maybe I do," Twilight replied, smiling. "Magic is my forte."





Burnout and Silverlinings walked down through the castle, on their way back to the training field.
"That went well." Silverlinings thought aloud.
"Yeah," Burnout responded, "Hopefully we can put all this kidnapping crap behind us, and get this town back on track."
"Hopefully." Silverlinings trailed off, in thought. He was staring straight ahead, and didn't seem to notice what was in front of him, until he blinked and it was in full view. "Aaaah!" He jumped in surprise. In front of him was a large, goofy, yet slightly disturbing clown face. It held a face of pure delight, a creepy grin stretching from ear to ear.
Burnout was nearly crying she was laughing so hard. "Alright there, 'Captain?'" She put air quotes around the final word, jokingly, as though his courage contradicted his title.
Upon a second inspection, Silverlinings saw that the clown was only a mask, and that a filly stood behind it. There was a small muffled 'boo' from the mask.
"Very funny, Platinum." Silverlinings said, flatly.
The figure took the mask off, revealing a large, normal-looking smile, on the face of a young filly, "Hello, you two," She greeted, enunciating each word.
"Hey kid." Burnout replied, still giggling.
Platinum Jubilee, grand filly of Diamond Jubilee, tossed the mask to the side and started following the two adult ponies, as they restarted their walk. "So what's going on?" She questioned. "You two are almost never around here."
"It's nothing, Miss Jubilee." Silverlinings said, over his shoulder. While Burnout wasn't afraid to simply call Platinum 'kid', he showed some respect to the young heiress.
"Come on, you can tell me." Platinum badgered.
"Really, it's nothing you should concern yourself about." Silverlinings persisted. Being homeschooled, Platinum almost never left the confines of the castle, and the fact that she was still young and innocent added to her alibi that she legitimately didn't know what was going on outside in the town.
Silverlinings and Platinum continued to bicker about the subject, until they came to the front foyer. "Come oooon," Platinum whined, " I have seen some new mares around here and I know they are involved with this.So, what is going on?"
"Miss, with all due respect, this is a matter that fillies, such as yourself, should Not. Get. Involved with." Silverlinings was losing his patience.
Platinum gave a long sigh, her large, silver curl of a mane bobbing. Platinum took after her mother, who had married into the regal family. The unicorn filly had a teal blue coat and a magenta fleur de lis cutie mark, which matched her eyes, and a silver gem in the center of the cutie mark. "But I want to know," She continued to mewl.
"Sorry, kid, but we gotta go," Burnout quickly cut in, getting tired of the argument. She spread out her wings and flew out the large front doors. Silverlinings followed, leaving Platinum alone.
"Well," She huffed, as she turned to go ask her grandmother what had been going on.

"Oh that is just awful!" Platinum shouted as Diamond Jubilee explained the situation, hesitantly.
"Yes dear, but you shouldn't worry yourself," the grey mare added, quickly, "We've been given help, straight from Celestia herself."
This did little to calm the filly down, "What if this mysterious kidnapper decides to come after the castle?! Oh dear..." She trailed off, pacing, making herself worry and hyperventilate. While the little filly loved having a good laugh, it didn't take much to worry her.
"Dear, it will be fine." Diamond attempted to reassure her worried grand filly.
"Are you absolutely certain, though, Grandmother?" Platinum turned, and looked at the older mare.
She smiled and responded, "Yes. I have complete faith in these mares. Now, will you do me a huge favor? Something I wouldn't normally ask you to do?"
Wanting to distract her mind, Platinum agreed to help her grandmother.





"Kali..." Miss Appleworm stood behind her desk, shaking her head. Her student had been late to class, again. "Why does this keep happening?"
The early afternoon sun shown through the window over the filly in question, "This time, it was for a different reason, Miss Appleworm," She quickly defended herself. "My baby brothers were upset and crying all night, and I couldn't fall asleep."
Miss Appleworm took this by surprise. Kali never talked about her family, and the couple of times she had met Kali's parents, they never mentioned baby brothers. "Oh," She took this as a completely different set of circumstances, and lightened up. "Well," she said, "seeing as this is apparently the first time this incident has happened because of your siblings, and it doesn't appear to be your fault, I won't give you a punishment, but please, try to start making on class on time."
"I'll try harder." Kali nodded her head and left the class room.

As she trotted towards the outskirts of town on her way to meet Willow, Kali was lost in thought. Nothing serious, or particular, just how it was a nice day, how Miss Appleworm had been nice and not given her detention or some other punishment, how nice it was that her and Willow seemed to be back to normal, even after the awkward conversation from the day prior. She just thought how everything was nice. 
"Huh?" Kali staggered backwards as she accidentally bumped into another filly, who was walking in to opposite direction.
"Oh I'm terribly sorry, that was my fault." the other filly apologized.
"No no," Kali retorted, getting her balance back, "I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going." She looked up at the filly, whom she did not recognize. "Oh, you must be new in town," She smiled and held out her hoof in greeting. "My name's Kaleidoscope Coral, but you can just call me Kali."
The blue unicorn gingerly took the hoof and shook it, "Hello... 'Kali'. My name is Platinum Jubilee and no, I'm not new here."
The other filly looked puzzled, "But I've never seen you at school, and you look around my age."
"Yes well, I live and study up in the castle, so I don't normally come down to the town." the unicorn answered.
"Really?" Kali asked. "What're you doing here? And shouldn't you have a body guard or something?" Kali looked around, expecting to see a large, burly stallion, who wouldn't fit through most door ways to be standing nearby, keeping an eye on the important little filly.
"Actually," the silver maned filly raised an eyebrow, "I can take care of myself. Besides, almost all of the royal guard is busy out defending the town. They don't have time for escorts."
"Oh," Kali thought about where to take the conversation from there, when she remembered her first question. "So what is some pony like you doing in town?"
"Well, now I was returning home, after delivering a message to the barracks," Platinum replied, "but it seems I've started a conversation with you instead."
"Oh, I'm sorry, if you're in a hurry, I can-" The purple pony started to say.
"Oh no, I'm in no rush." the unicorn quickly butted in. "You seem nice enough." She smiled, "Besides, it gets lonely up in that big castle with no pony your own age to talk to."
"You're all alone up there?"
"Pretty much." The teal filly frowned, "The only friends I really have are the captain of the guard and-"
"You're friends with Silverlinings?" Kali quickly asked.
"Yes, but he and Burnout are almost never around the castle..." Platinum looked down, saddened.
"I'll be your friend." The earth pony smiled.
The other filly looked up, quickly, "But we've only just met. I hardly know anything about you."
"So?" Kali shrugged, "We can fix that. If you have the time, why don't you come with me? I'm on my way to meet another friend, and I'm sure he'd be your friend, too."
Platinum thought for a moment, before she responded, "Are you sure? I wouldn't want to impose..."
"It's fine," Kali reassured, "I don't mind, and I doubt he will."
After some hesitation and thinking, the unicorn smiled and replied with, "Alright, why not?"




	
> Chapter Five
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

			Chapter Five




Twilight was concentrating as hard as she could, Her powerful magic scanning everything around her. She had learned from the documents gathered by Diamond Jubilee the homes of the missing ponies. She decided investigating every house was the best way to find a lead.
After visiting a grieving mother Twilight turned to Rarity, who was holding the list and asked, "Who's next?"
"Hmm," The unicorn skimmed the list, "a little filly went missing by the name of Marigold Mist, and Twilight, not that you aren't doing a marvelous job, but you do seem rather tired."
"Ok?" Twilight's mane had several hairs out of place and she had bags under her eyes. "I am a little, but I don't see what you're getting at."
"Well," Rarity and the other mares looked a little worried, "maybe if you taught me the spells you're using, I could help ease the burden of this arduous task."
Twilight thought for a minute, "Do you really think you can manage? This is a very complicated spell."
"Dear," Rarity smiled, "have you seen my pick stitches? Those aren't exactly your basic hemstitches. I think I can manage."





Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie approached the white house with blue trim. The six had split up into two groups, to cut the time this would take in half. Applejack knocked on the front door, and waited for a response. A brown earth mare answered the door and looked at the three ponies on her front porch.
"Can I help you?" She slowly asked.
"Howdy," Applejack responded, "Name's Applejack, and this is Rarity and Pinkie Pie. We're just here to ask you a few questions and take a couple tests."
"Questions and tests?" The earth pony looked skeptical. "About what?"
"The string of disappearances," Rarity answered. "We understand that a couple of ponies, a mare and a stallion, have disappeared from here?"
The brown mare grimaced. "Well then, I suppose you should come inside." She moved out of the way, allowing her three guests to shuffle inside. As she rejoined them in the living room, she introduced herself. "I'm Cornucopia. My brother should be getting home soon."
"We won't take too long, dear." Rarity assured, looking around. Her horn began to glow as she examined the furniture.
"Now then," Pinkie grabbed Cornucopia and slammed her onto the coach. The lights seemed to automatically dim, as Pinkie pointed a very high power spot light right into Cornucopia's face. "Tell us everything!" Pinkie shrieked.
"Pinkie!" cried Applejack, knocking away the light, returning everything to it's proper ambiance. "That ain't how we're gonna ask these questions." She cleared her throat, smiled, and asked in a polite and calm voice, "Now then, who is it that went missing? What were they to you?"
Cornucopia blinked. It took her a moment to get caught up on what exactly just happened. After a second, she replied, "My mom and dad."
"Uh huh," Applejack continued, "and where'n the house did they go missing?"
"Upstairs, in their bedroom, while they were sleeping," Cornucopia pointed to a flight of stairs. "Last door on the left. Follow me."
She led the three other mares up the stairs and down the hall, to the final door on the left hoof side. Cornucopia blew dust off the knob before gripping it. "Sorry," She said, "forgive the dust. No pony's gone in here for years."
"Understandable," nodded Rarity.
Cornucopia slowly opened the door to reveal a bedroom with a large queen-sized bed, a couple dressers, and a nightstand on either side of the bed. Everything had a thick layer of dust, with several cob webs spotting the room.
"This is where they were the night 'it' happened," Cornucopia side stepped to allow the three ponies entrance. "Feel free to look around. All the drawers and stuff are empty." She walked back down the hall and down the stairs, out of sight.
Applejack and Pinkie began carefully examining every inch of the dressers and nightstands, while Rarity cast a spell around the bed. After awhile, AJ asked, "Anythin' Rare?"
"Not yet." Her eyes were clenched shut, and she was using all of her focus. She could now see why Twilight was exhausted, and she had done several houses, while Rarity had only done one.
"Hey guys?" Pinkie was looking in the nightstand farthest from the door, closer to a window. "If Cornucopia said all the drawers were empty... then this Pinkie Me shouldn't be here, right?"
The other two gave puzzled looks to each other, before AJ went to investigate. She peered in the drawer, and saw a mirror. It was a nice, dark oak colored mirror, with an embroidered handle. The reflection was of Pinkie Pie, but while the pink mare next to Applejack was making silly faces at the mirror, her reflection was expressionless, unmoving, and almost creepy. Her hair was straight and fell over part of her face. She had bags under the only eye that was visible, but the eye itself is what made it unsettling. It was just her pupil. No iris, just a small, beady, blood shot pupil. It was also angry. No, not just angry, this Pinkie reflection was furious. It's visage held a look of hatred: pure, unrelenting hatred.
"Uh... Pinkie," Applejack slowly reached in and grabbed the mirror, "let me see that for a second." AJ looked directly into the mirror, and came face to face with herself... and it scared her. The Applejack she saw had an unkempt mane, the same vicious eyes Pinkie's reflection had had, only AJ's was smirking, as though she were far superior to any other pony, and knew it. Applejack gasped and dropped the mirror.
Rarity glanced down at the mirror, "Oh come now, what could possibly be so bad?" She released her grip on the bed, and focused her magic on the mirror. When she tried to lift it to her, it didn't budge, even for a second. "Huh?" Rarity tried again and again, but to no avail. She walked over to the mirror and looked down inside it. She saw herself, like the others did: strangely distorted. The reflection had a frizzled, and horrifying mane, with eyes full of paranoia. They were beady like the others, but they peered around, as if in fear of anyone that would dare get to close to her. Rarity gasped at the sight, and pushed the mirror away. Applejack picked it up and quickly put it into her saddlebag.
The three mares looked from one to another, just with simple looks. They knew to keep this quiet until a certain lavender unicorn could examine further.





Twilight Sparkle rang the door bell on the small, two story cottage and she waited for a response, along with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. The sun was getting lower in the sky, so she knew this would have to be quick. After a few minutes, a clatter was heard on the other side of the door. A white stallion answered with a curious, "Hello?"
"Oh!" Twilight said in surprise, "Hello, Silverlinings."
"Oh, hey Twilight," Silverlinings stepped out onto the front stoop. "Hey Flutter, hey... Rainie," Silverlinings began looking somewhat uncomfortable at the sight of the cyan mare.
Rainbow Dash smirked, proud that she could provoke such a reaction to a usually level-headed pony, "Hey Sil."
Silverlinings cleared his throat, and asked, "What's up, Twilight?"
Twilight dropped the smile she had on and her face grew sadder, "We were wondering if we could ask you a couple questions about.. Marigold?"
Silverlinings looked shocked at this. "Um... uh... yeah..." He began looking unfocused. "Come on in," He opened the door and walked back into the cottage, and into the front room, closely followed by the mares. "Can I get any of you anything? Are you hungry? Thirsty?"
"Oh no, I'm fine," Twilight politely declined, as the three of them took their seats in chairs around a coffee table.
"No, thank you," Fluttershy respectively turned down the offer.
"Nah," was simply all that Dash said.
"Alright, then," Silverlinings sighed, "Then I guess we should get down to brass tacks. What do you want to know?" He sat in a chair across from Twilight, with Rainbow to his left and Flutter to his right. They each sat along their respective table side.
Twilight, seeing that this was a sore subject for the captain, decided he was right and got right down to the questions, "What was Marigold to you? What was your relationship to her?"
"She was only my niece, whom I had legal custody over, but I loved her like she was my own daughter." Silverlinings lower lip trembled slightly.
"And how did she fall into your custody?" Twilight continued.
"After her father died, my brother, she came to live with me." Silverlinings answered.
"How long ago was that?" Twilight was taking small notes on the conversation.
"About..." Silverlinings thought, "four years ago. But she disappeared a little under a year ago."
"That was my next question," Twilight scribbled some more notes, "and where was she last?"
"I don't know," Silverlinings' breathing was uneasy, "The last I saw her, she was heading for school. I never saw her again."
"So she vanished outside of this house?"
"Yeah. The school teacher, Miss Appleworm, claims she was at school that day, too." A tear trickled down Silverlinings' cheek, "I have no idea where she went. No pony does."
"Don't worry," Fluttershy set a hoof on his shoulder, "We'll find her, along with all the other missing ponies."
"Thank you..." Silverlinings closed his eyes, causing a couple more tears to fall. He gave a long sigh, and seemed calmer. He looked up at Twilight, "Anything else?"
"Yes, actually," Twilight answered, "do you think we can have a look in Marigold's room?"
"Sure," Silverlinings got up and walked over to the stairs. "Just up here."

There were only two rooms on the top floor, and only three ponies could fit, comfortably, in the room that had once housed Marigold. Rainbow Dash sat, bored, outside in the hall. She glanced over at the other door, and decided to take a peek. Why not? What would be the harm? So she slowly cracked the door open and looked around. As she had expected, it was Silverlinings' bedroom. Nothing of interest here. She was about to close the door, when something on the nightstand caught her eye. Something she hadn't seen in years.

Twilight, Fluttershy and Silverlinings stood in the front foyer, the two mares were ready to leave. "Rainbow Dash!" Called Twilight. "I wonder where she went."
"She's around," Silverlinings assured.
"Well the sun's already set, and I wanted to visit one more house, before returning to the castle." Twilight explained. "Come on, Rainbow Dash! Where'd you go?"
Rainbow called from the next room, "Go on without me. I'll catch up later."
"But why?" Twilight called back.
"Just wanna ask Sil a couple more questions." replied Rainbow Dash.
"Uh, ok," Twilight shrugged and turned to Silverlinings. "Thank you so much. You've been very helpful."
"No, thank you for stopping by," Silverlinings said. "It's been some time since I had company." With that, the two mares left. Silverlinings returned to the front room. He was met with Rainbow Dash, who was holding a framed picture. The picture was of Rainbow and Silverlinings. In it, Rainbow was giving a very startled looking Silverlinings a large kiss on the cheek. Silverlinings remembered that Rainbow had done this right before the photo was taken. It was their first picture together, and he had cherished it since.
"What was this doing on your nightstand?" Rainbow Dash immediately asked.
> Chapter Six
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Six




Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie and AJ sat around the end of the massive hall table. They were reviewing the notes they had taken throughout the day, when Applejack piped up and asked, "Hey, Twi? Y'think you can take a look at somethin' we found?"
"Is it relevant to the case?" Twilight didn't want to waste any time on frivolous, pointless things when there were at least twelve missing ponies that needed saving.
"Pretty relevant, yeah," AJ pulled out the mirror and placed it on the table.
Twilight looked confused for a second at the strange artifact. She focused her magic around it, but that was immediately broken. The purple unicorn looked utterly baffled. She had some of the most powerful magic in all of Equestria, but whatever was in the mirror was a hundred times more powerful, and a hundred times more dark.
"Where did you find this?" Twilight examined the carved handle, looking for anything of significance.
"That house we went to," Pinkie replied. "But it gets spooookier," Pinkie waved her front hooves around, ominously. "Look at your reflection."
Twilight glanced into the mirror for a second, to humor the mare of laughter, but did a double take at what she saw. The reflection was of her... but different. Spooky, just as Pinkie had said. In the mirror, Twilight had no unicorn horn. She was an ordinary earth mare, with the largest, most soul piercing eyes any pony had ever seen. They were larger than normal, glossy and had tears running down the sides. All of a sudden, right where the reflection should've had a horn, a burn mark appeared. It slowly started to grow, burning it's way through her head. Reflection Twilight's skin began to boil, blood flowing from her tear ducts. At the exact same time, both Twilights screamed, one in pain, the other in fright. The real Twilight, who had screamed in fear, knocked the mirror away.
Every other pony looked from one to another. "Twilight..." Rarity slowly approached the purple mare, "Dear, are you ok?"
"No! I'm not!" Twilight went on to describe what she had seen. The expressions of her friends growing more and more horrified with every dark detail. "This mirror is evil. Not Discord evil, but pure, dark, visceral evil." Twilight stared at the mirror, and although it was an inanimate object, she could feel it staring back.





Kali, Willow, and their new friend Platinum all sat around the table, smiling and laughing. It took Willow a minute or two to warm up to Platinum, but now it seemed as though they'd been friends for ages. All three of them had a similar trait: they had almost no friends. Kali had been ostracized for not having her cutie mark yet. Willow had lost standing, mainly because of his shy demeanor, but also because he was the only one willing to be friends with Kali. Platinum was a shut-in who almost never left the confines of the castle, so she had little overall experience with ponies her age at all. This reoccurring quality of isolation allowed Platinum to understand how lonely the two other ponies were. But they had each other. Platinum was grateful for Kali's hospitality and immediate friendship, but she still felt like she was crossing some kind of line. This was their special hangout, and Platinum had just waltzed in. She didn't show any of this uncertainty, of course, but instead laughed at the ridiculous story Kali had told about her life.
"But enough about me," Kali said, wiping a tear from her eye, "What about you, Platinum? What's your life like?"
The teal filly thought for a moment, thinking of where to start. "Well," she replied, "my grandmother is Lady Diamond Jubilee, my ancestors help found Stableton-"
"We know all that," Kali smiled a waved a hoof, dismissing the formal history lesson. "We want to know about you."
"Oh, well.." Platinum thought some more, "since I don't really get out much and I have no siblings, I enjoy reading a lot of fiction in my free time. You know, adventure and danger and such. I also enjoy a good joke, now and then." She giggled to herself, remembering how she had frightened Silverlinings and made Burnout laugh so hard.
"That's cool," Willow's eyes lit up a little. "What kind of adventure stories?"
"The romantic, knight in shining armor goes to rescue the princess sort of stories." Platinum answered, feeling a little silly at her response, but it was the truth. She loved the concept of these stories.
Willow looked slightly put off. He didn't realize books like that were still around, let alone relevant.
"Don't get me wrong though," the unicorn filly added, "I like other books, too."
After a couple minutes, Kali asked, "Anything else? Anything important we should know?"
"Hmm..." Platinum rubbed her chin thinking, "Not at the moment, no." She looked over at Willow, "What about you, Willow? What's your life like?"
"Oh, umm..." Willow was never good on the spot. He cleared his throat, "I have an older sister who takes care of me. I'm generally shy..."
"I caught that." Platinum giggled.
Willow smiled and continued, "I like sketching and cartography. Cartography is map making," he explained, "I just wish I was a pegasus so I could get a better view of an area." He sighed at the prospect.
"Hey," Kali said, looking outside, "It's getting kinda late. We should probably head back soon."
The two other ponies nodded in agreement, as they too got up to leave.
"Yeah," Platinum sighed, "every pony up at the castle is probably worried sick as to where I've been..."
The three friends exited the cavern and started heading back down the trail.
"Hey," Kali nudged Platinum, "You'll come back, right? To hang out?"
The silver maned filly smiled, "Of course. I'll visit everyday if I can. Same time right?"
"Yup," Kali smiled back.





Twilight paced the room, unsure what to do with the dreaded mirror. She glanced, every now and then, over to the accursed trinket. She knew she needed to examine it, but she was afraid of looking into the reflection, again. After about an hour of pacing and thinking, she took a deep breath and approached the mirror, her eyes closed. She slowly opened one eye, and looked down at the object. She saw... herself, anticlimactically. Just her, no distortion, no blood. It was a perfect reflection. This puzzled Twilight. What had happened to the evil Twilight that had looked back at her?
She decided to worry about it later and began to examine the handle that the mirror was set in. She examined the dark wood and concluded the mirror was quite old. Beyond old. Older than Celestia! This shocked Twilight, who continued to examine the intricate mirror handle. When she began to examine the small area around the glass, she noticed something. There were gems embedded on the mirror's edge: a vibrant, purple amethyst, pink tourmaline, orange carnelian and diamond, along with a dull, yellow canary and aquamarine gem. 
Twilight was curious as to why the aquamarine and canary gems were so faded, while the other four were so gleaming. Several theories ran through her head, but none of them had enough evidence for validity. She picked up the mirror with her hoof and began walking toward the door. Right as she was about to open it, the door swung open in her face, causing her to drop the mirror. Pinkie and Fluttershy stood in the door frame.
Right as Pinkie was about to yell something, Twilight cut her off, by yelling, "No pony look at that mirror!"
Pinkie did little to heed her friend's words, while the yellow pegasus quickly covered her face with her wings, but it was too late. She had glanced down at the mirror for a split second and saw it: her reflection. She was shaking under her wings at just the split second she had seen of her evil reflection. It had soulless, black eyes, with an air around her, that permeated ferocity. She was also cloaked in dark hell fire. 
Twilight quickly grabbed the mirror and pulled it away from her friends. She looked down to notice something that confirmed one of her suspicions: the canary stone was glowing like the others. This mirror had something to do with the Elements of Harmony.





Silverlinings stood, speechless. It wasn't that he couldn't come up with an explanation for the picture or that he was shocked Rainbow Dash would snoop around in his room. He was surprised at Rainbow's reaction to the picture. It was as though she were trying to hide the fact that it... that they ever happened. Silverlinings cleared his throat, and stared at the cyan mare. He slowly began approaching her as he muttered, "Rainie, I..."
Rainbow held up her other hoof, the one not holding the framed picture, to indicate to Silverlinings to stop talking. She gave a hefty sigh and said, "We've been done for years, Sil. I've moved on..."
"Have you?" The white pegasus didn't look convinced. "How many came into your life, after me?"
Dash was taken aback. She thought for a moment. "Well... no pony..." She said eventually. "But I just haven't found the right pony."
"Yeah," Silverlinings nodded, and looked down, "That's what I thought." The two stood in awkward silence, before Silver simply said, "Eight."
"Huh?" Rainbow looked confused.
"That's how many times I've tried to move on," Silverlinings sighed. "Of course five of those didn't last two weeks."
Dash was now the one in shock. She thought Silverlinings was some kind of clingy, obsessive stallion, but she could tell by the way his eyes slowly began to water, and the unsteadiness in his breath, that he had genuinely tried to move past this.
He gave a faint smile and slowly shook his head, "They all had the same problem...."
These words snapped the mare back to reality. She blinked a couple times to refocus before asking, "What was the problem?"
Silverlinings looked up into her brilliant pink eyes, a single tear trickling out of his vibrant yellow ones. "They weren't you..."
> Chapter Seven
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Seven




"Sil...," Rainbow Dash looked away. She couldn't bare to look him in the eyes. "I... I should go. Gotta get back to saving every pony," she forced a smile and a chuckle, and proceeded to head out of the room.
Silverlinings heard the front door slam as Rainbow Dash left him for a second time. He stood there, alone and uncertain of what to do. What the hay are you doing just standing here? He thought. The mare of your dreams just walked out on you, again and you're just going to stand here, feeling sorry for yourself? Silverlinings took a deep breath and weighed his options. It was obvious she still felt something for him. What did he have to lose?

"Hey Rainie," Dash turned around to see Silverlinings standing in the doorway to his home. "Do you want to get a bite to eat tomorrow?"
Rainbow Dash smirked. "Sure, but you're paying." She turned back around and spread her wings, ready to take flight. "I'll see you 'round 6." With that, she took off leaving inch deep hoof impressions from where she kicked off. As soon as she was sure Silver couldn't see her, the cyan mare's smirk softened, into a warm smile. Maybe it can still work out...





Rainbow Dash landed on the roof of the castle. The vibrant colors of the flowers shone in the moonlight. She made her way inside and started looking for her friends. She went down a flight of stairs to the conjoined suites they were accommodated with, and found Rarity,  Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.
"Hey, Girls," Rainbow approached them and looked at AJ and Pinkie, "Find anything at the house you went to?"
"Well, actually... yeah," The orange earth mare looked concerned. "We found this creepy ol' mirror an'-"
"And it's spookifyingly shiverific!" Pinkie blurted out, grabbing the chromatically gifted pegasus by the shoulders.
"It's... what?"  She looked at the other mares, hoping for some clarification.
"What she means is," Fluttershy piped up, "this mirror is super scary and Twilight said it might be evil."
"Speaking of which, where is she?" Dash looked around the room but found no sign of their book worm of a friend's presence.
"She's gone an' locked herself up in her room," AJ motioned towards the hallway, where the entrance to each suite was located. "Say's she ain't comin' out 'til she's got somethin'."
"Well," Rainbow cracked her neck and yawned, "could some pony let her know I'm back? I'm beat," She walked through one of the doorways into the suite next door and collapsed on the bed.
"C'mon, Fluttershy!" Pinkie wrapped her hoof around her shy, yellow friend and proceeded to drag her into the hallway, "Let's go!"
"Oh... ok," The timid pegasus did little to stop her boisterous pink friend.





Borealis Burnout sauntered around the castle. She hated nights like this; when she had to patrol the halls and nothing was happening. She should have kept with the job of training the recruits, but she instead decided to pass that off to Whimsy Daydream: a particularly lazy pegasus who had all the expertise to get the job done, if she could just get the motivation. Burnout gave some choice obscenities under her breath at her own stupidity. To top it off, this was Silver's night off, so she couldn't even hang out with him. "I hate working swing shift," she muttered.
She eventually bumped into Platinum. "And where have you been all day?" Burnout asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Out," The teal pony answered, shortly. She started walking, but was blocked by Burnout.
"Out where?" The brown pegasus inquired. "I am technically your bodyguard and I need to know these things, ya know?"
"Nah," Platinum shook a hoof, "you're more like a big sister." Dodging the question, she tried moving by again. This, however, was a fruitless effort.
"Kid," Burnout was getting frustrated, "where were you? That's all I need to know."
"Out with friends," Platinum answered.
The pegasus snickered, "First of all, since when do you have friends?" She asked jokingly tussling the heiress' mane. "Second, what was so hard about telling me that?"
Platinum blinked, a little in shock. "You aren't angry that I went somewhere without permission?"
"What? Kid, this is me you're talking to. I'm not exactly a number one role model," Burnout almost seemed offended at her own words. "Anyway, you were told to just go deliver something right? No pony said you couldn't get side tracked. Now who're these 'friends' of yours?"
Platinum Jubilee went on to talk about Kali and Willow, as she and Burnout began walking together.
"Oh yeah," Burnout thought aloud, "I think Kali is Silver's friend. she seems cool." They continued walking around for a few minutes, when they heard some pony yell from the hall just around the corner.
"What the hay?" Burnout began trotting toward the origin of the scream, Platinum in tow.
The two came to an open doorway with a purple unicorn examining a mirror, a yellow pegasus cowering on the floor and a pink earth mare bouncing around the room.
"We heard some pony yelling. Is everything alright?" Burnout asked.
"For the time being, yes," Twilight replied. "In the long run, however, I don't think so..."
The brown pegasus and the filly looked confused.
"I need to speak with Lady Jubilee as soon as possible," Twilight continued, placing the mirror on a table.
"She's gone to bed," Borealis pointed out, "but you can see her first thing in the morning."
"Alright," Twilight huffed, "we might as well get some shut eye." She turned to talk to Pinkie Pie, but found she was already fast asleep, with her head on the ground and her rump in the air. Twilight sighed, "It has been an exhausting day..." She used her magic to levitate Pinkie across the hall, into her own room and bed. The purple mare yawned loudly as she walked back across the hall. "Lights out, girls," She called into Rarity's room, where her and AJ had been talking. "Big day tomorrow."
Fluttershy also went to her respective room, still trembling at the thought of the mirror.
"Goodnight, Miss," Burnout said as Twilight closed her bedroom door. "Same goes for you, Squirt," She said as she spun around to look at Platinum.
"Aww," She whined, "but Burnout-"
"Don't even try that," Burnout gave a devilish grin, "unless you want some pony who'd give a buck to know where you were. They might not be as understanding as me."
That shut Platinum up immediately. She scurried off to bed without another word.
"Well..." Burnout sighed, restarting her mindless wandering of the castle, "I got the whole night ahead of me..."





Kali...

Oh Kali...

Wake up, Kali.

"Kali!" Kali slowly opened her eyes, escaping the nightmare she had endured for weeks. The dark, menacing voice she was used to had been replaced by a less threatening, more familiar one.
"Willow...?" She asked, groggily, her vision still adjusting.
"C'mon Kali, get up," Willow sat at her bedside, nudging her constantly. "Something's happened at the castle!"
Kali sat up and stretched. "The castle...?" It took her a second for these words to sink in. Her eyes grew wider as she repeated the words, "The castle!?"
"C'mon! Your folks already got a head start," Willow and Kali trotted down, out of the house and headed towards the castle on the edge of town.
"So what happened?" Kali asked as they ran.
"Don't know. Apparently Silverlinings is keeping the details really hushed," Willow answered.
"Then why are we going, if he isn't saying anything?" Kali slowed down a little, thinking.
"Because we have an inside source," Willow yelled over his shoulder.
It took Kali a moment to realize what Willow was talking about. "Platinum?" Kali began running again, trying to catch up to Willow. "D'you think she'd know?"
"Well, she does live there," Willow called back.

They eventually made it to the front gates of the grand castle. A large throng of ponies had already assembled. As they approached, Willow's social anxiety took over and he grew dead quiet. Although it was a small town, almost all of these ponies were complete strangers and he stopped several feet from the crowd.
Kali stopped and turned around to look at him, "You ok?"
Willow took a deep breath, his pulse quickening. "uhh... not sure." They had to get through the crowd to try and find Platinum Jubilee, but his agoraphobia had gotten the better of him. His sight darted from pony to pony, each one seemed more intimidating than the last.
"C'mon," Kali took a step towards the crowd, "you'll be fine. You're not this bad at school," she pointed out.
"That's because I kind of know every pony in our class," the unicorn answered, bluntly. "This... this is a completely different set of circumstances...."
"Willow, hey Willow," Kali clapped her hooves together, getting his attention.
Willow looked down from the vast swath of ponies and looked at Kali. She was smiling, gently.
"Just focus on me, ok?" She held out her hoof. "We're gonna walk through the crowd and I want you to only focus on me, ok?"
Willow's heart rate slowed, almost to it's normal speed. He swallowed hard and nodded, "ok..." He took her hoof and the purple pony began leading him through the waves of patrons. They moved slowly, but productively.
"You'll be ok, Willow," Kali reassured. "Just look at me."
Seeing Kali's smiling face as she walked backwards to face him, eased Willow's tense mind. He really wished he was like this; he was always so afraid and so timid in public, but had no idea why. Kali on the other hoof, she was so open, kind and inviting. Always so nice to every pony, willing to talk about their problems. It was one of the things that Willow loved about her.
"Willow... Willow," The black unicorn shook his head, snapping himself back to reality. Kali was still smiling at him. "You made it through, Willow." She smiled even bigger at him.
Willow glanced around and noticed the whole crowd was behind him. He turned back to Kali, blushing slightly, and stating, "I have you to thank..."
Kali giggled and turned around, looking at the gate to the castle, which was closed up. After several minutes of looking around, waiting for some pony to come out, Silver obliged and exited the castle to speak to the crowd. What little, hushed sounds the crowd was making died as the white pegasus stepped up the other side of the gate.
He cleared his throat before he began speaking, "Ponies, I'm sorry to keep you all waiting, but for right now, the royal family would like to keep this affair quite. Details will be released as they see fit." This caused an uproar of questions from the crowd, most of which turned out to be reporters. Silverlinings gazed around the crowd, eventually noticing Kali and Willow. He approached them from the other side of the gate and whispered to them, quickly, "Platinum asked for you. Head around back and I'll let you in." Luckily in the rumble of the crowd, no other pony heard the pegasus. He turned around and reentered the house without addressing any of the quizzical ponies. The two friends looked at one another and began trotting around the perimeter of the estate.





After a couple hours of silence, a forlorn looking pegasus emerged from the house once more. By now, entire reporting crews had arrived and some pony had set up a podium with several recording mics, for what looked like a small press conference. Silverlinings just rolled with it and approached the microphones. "Fillies and gentlecolts, I regret to inform you, that Lady Diamond Jubilee has disappeared."
> Bonus Flashback 1: Borealis and Silver's First Assignment
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Warning: This chapter is much darker than normal. I will be touching on certain dark subjects, like physical, domestic abuse. I DO NOT condone the act of physical abuse. There will also be a bit more... coarse language. I've censored what I've had to to keep this rated Teen.

"Captain..." Diamond Jubilee shook her head, staring at the white stallion, "why does this keep happening?"
"I'm not sure what you mean, ma'am," Silverlinings said, flatly. He had no idea why the grey mare would call a meeting with him.
"Another one's quit," She pulled out a file form, indicating the self provoked termination of the position of first lieutenant.
"Hazy Crackle quit?" Silverlinings looked shocked.
"Something about you being 'unethical and reckless.' That's the third lieutenant you've lost this month," Jubilee remarked, "you need to find a partner that works."
"Don't think I don't know that," Silver muttered, "but Hazy Crackle was the last eligible officer in my ranks," he explained.
"Then lucky for you, we have a transfer coming in from Van Hoover," Jubilee held up a case file, and tossed it to the pegasus. "She's really experienced and skilled."
Silverlinings read the information on the new mare. "Borealis Burnout, huh? Well... we'll see," He closed the file, determined to read the whole manuscript later.
"Just... try and make this one work," Diamond Jubilee pleaded.
The captain sighed, "Like I said, we'll see." He wasn't too keen on the idea of some pony he'd never met taking the title of first lieutenant, but he did trust Diamond Jubilee's judgement.





The brown pegasus mare stared out of the train window. She had spent her entire life in Van Hoover and when the opportunity for a transfer came up, especially to a town like Stableton, which no pony had ever really heard of, she grabbed it. She looked at her files, which sat in front of her. She was to be paired up with the captain of the local guard; a daunting position to be taking, to say the least.
After some time of staring at the passing scenery, dozing off and rereading her transfer information, the brown mare finally saw her destination; a large castle, full of grandeur, came into view as the train left a tunnel, opening up to a range surrounded by mountains, but still managing to fit in rolling hills inside the convex landscape. It was nothing like the rainy, bustling city she had grown up in.
"Wow..." was all she was able to say. She was absolutely breathless at the sight and splendor of the rolling countryside. "Well... here we go," She mumbled to herself.





Unethical and reckless? Silverlinings thought to himself as he laid in bed. "Unethical, maybe," He muttered out loud to the ceiling, "but reckless? Maybe they're right. Was it my fault that... that thing got away?" He thought about the most recent plague on the town of Stableton. It resembled a Changeling, but it was silver, with eyes of fluctuating color. Sometimes they'd be blue, other times red. He rolled over and looked at the picture he kept on the night stand. It was a dusty old photo, but he cherished it so very much.
Silverlinings was about to drift to sleep, when he heard a soft creaking sound. He looked up and saw that his door was open. A small pegasus filly stood in the doorway. She had a yellow coat with a red mane, red hooves, wing tips and tail. She wore light blue pajamas and held a stuffed animal resembling a breezy under her wing.
"Daddy..." She said softly.
"Yeah Sweetie?" Silver asked, still barely awake.
"I heard lightning outside..." She replied.
The stallion smiled, "Alright, come here." He sat up and turned on his lamp. The little filly ran over and jumped into his arms. She was small for a filly her age, only barely larger than a newborn foal, and she was to start school next year. Although this filly, Marigold Mist, wasn't technically his daughter, Silver didn't mind when she called him 'dad'. After all, she barely knew her real father.
Silverlinings readjusted himself, holding the small filly close. He cleared his throat and began singing the song his mother would recite:


Hush little foal, please dry your eyes.
It will be ok, no need to cry.

All of the ghouls and monsters, you fear,
are locked outside. You're safe in here.

You're safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms, you won't be harmed.

Safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms.
I promise you, you're safe in my arms.

All of the evils of the world have gone.
I will hold you close until the dawn.

I promise you that, safe you'll be.
Because to get to you they'd have to get through me.

You're safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms, you won't be harmed.

Safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms.
I promise you, you're safe in my arms.

Though the world may be a scary place,
I will protect you through the fears you face.

Because you're my foal, I hold you dear.
I promise the demons won't come near.

You're safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms, you won't be harmed.

Safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms.
I promise you, you're safe in my arms.

You're safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms, you won't be harmed.

Safe in my arms.
Safe in my arms.
I promise you, you're safe in my arms. 


Silverlinings looked down at the filly he'd been cradling; she was fast asleep. He sighed softly and smiled, before getting up and carrying his niece to her room. He laid her down gently, and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
"Good night, Sweetie," He smiled, "I promise that nothing bad will ever happen to you..."





Burnout sat in her hotel room. She'd have to stay here until she could find a suitable place to live. She was reading over her transfer papers once more. She was now more excited than nervous. She set the papers on the table and climbed into bed.
"Might as well," She yawned, "try and get some-" the hotel phone started ringing. "Dammit!" She swore as she picked up the receiver. "Hello? Who is this?"
"Where th' hell are you!?" Came an angry, slurred voice from the other end.
Burnout caught her breath and her heart beat began to pick up. She swallowed hard before answering, "How did you get this number?" She asked, trying to keep her voice calm.
"Th' fuck does it matter to you, you dumb little-" The stallion on the other end started to say.
"Pine Tipper," The pegasus interrupted, "How'd you get this number?"
For a second, no pony answered, until, "You left the damn number on the coffee table, with a hotel name on it, you dumb bitch."
'Crap,' Burnout thought, 'Should've taken that, too.'
"Hey, you still there, you stupid cu-" The stallion hiccuped, slightly.
Burnout began to raise her voice, "Dammit, Pine! You've been drinking again, haven't you?!" She shouted into the phone.
"Don' try an' change the subject, you stupid-"
"Shut up! Just shut up!" Burnout had tears welling in her eyes. "I'm just so sick of your shit!"
"Hey, listen you little whore! You get your ass back here now, or I swear I'm gonna-"
"Gonna what!? What the hell can you do to me that you haven't already!?" Burnout no longer cared that there might've been some pony just on the other side of the wall, trying to sleep. She shouted as the tears began rolling down her cheeks, "Why do you think I left, Pine? I can't stand you! You're just terrible!"
"Where the fuck are you?! I swear I'm gonna come over there and-"
"Go ahead and try! Maybe if you find twelve more assholes like you, you might have enough accumulated brain cells to know where to start looking!" Burnout cried hoarsely into the receiver, before slamming it back into the cradle and fell backwards onto the bed. She'd been wanting to say that for years, and she finally did. A smile broke out on her face. She was finally out of Van Hoover; she was finally away from... him.





"Deadbolt.... Deadbolt!" Silverlinings called to his second lieutenant. 
The burgundy unicorn refocused, realizing his superior officer was addressing him. "Yes, Sir?" He asked, blinking his bright red eyes, and brushing his grey mane out of the way.
"How goes the hunt?" Silverlinings asked, referring to the changeling-esque creature roaming the streets.
"Still no luck Sir," Deadbolt answered, "We can't find hide nor hair of it."
"Damn..." Silverlinings muttered under his breath. "Alright, I want you to double the patrols," He said, looking over at the unicorn, "but only during the night. Keep the same number of troops during the day. If civilians saw upped guards, they'd worry; no sense scaring every pony."
"Right away, Sir," Deadbolt trotted off towards the barracks to inform his men of the new schedule.
Silverlinings heaved a large sigh and began the long walk across town to the castle. 





He passed by his old friend, Warm Glow's house, and decided to stop in. The white pegasus knocked, gently against the door. He waited a couple seconds, until a purple mare with a green mane answered. "Hey Kaleidoscope Sugar," Silverlinings greeted in a sincere tone.
"Oh, hi Silver!" The mare answered in her usual chipper tone, "come on in."
"Thanks," Silverlinings stepped inside, "I just came by to see how Warm Glow's doing."
"I just got him home from the hospital," Sugar informed, "He might be asleep, but you're welcome to check on him, if you'd like. Upstairs, first door on the left," She gestured to a flight of stairs.
As Silver began to ascend the flight of stairs, a small squeak of a voice came up behind him, "Who're you?"
Silver turned around to see a little filly, maybe a year or two older than Marigold, with a purple coat and a green mane with a yellow streak. The pegasus smiled, "My name's Silverlinings and I'm a friend of your dad's."
"I'm Kaleidoscope Coral," The filly replied, "but every pony just calls me Kali."
"Well, Kali," Silverlinings went down another step, "Do you know if your dad's awake?"
"I think so," Kali scratched her head, "I hear him laughing at his TV shows, so I'm pretty sure he's awake. Mama won't let me see him though. I hope he's ok. Mama had to take him to the hospital."
"Well I've got special permission to go check on him," Silver smiled, "How about I check on him for you?"
"Ok," Kali smiled back, "Thank you, Mr. Silverlinings!"

As Silver entered the bed room, he was met with a sight that made him stop for a second. Then he cleared his throat to get the attention of the other pony in the room, "Never thought I'd see ya held up in bed, Glow."
The red stallion lying in bed looked over from his television and smiled. "Silver! Great to see ya!" He began trying to sit up, grunting as he tried lifting himself with only his front hooves.
"No, don't get up on my account," Silverlinings said as he walked over to the bed side. He looked the red pegasus over before asking, "How ya holding up?"
The red stallion smiled and sighed. "Like crap," he honestly answered. "Can't feel my wings anymore and my hind legs are getting all numb." He patted his hind legs with his fore legs.
"What'd the doctors say?" The white stallion asked.
Warm Glow hesitated, before answering, "They said... there's a possibility that I ain't got long..." He finally choked out, a lump forming in his throat, "few years... tops."
Silverlinings stared at Warm Glow, in shock, "How high's the possibility?"
"Uh..." Warm Glow stuttered, thinking, "Only a 40% chance I'll be fine."
"Then there's still hope," Silverlinings put on a smile, attempting to reassure his old friend.
Glow smiled, "Exactly! But..." He sighed, "On the uh... off chance I don't make it..." He thought for a second. "Silverlinings?"
"Yeah?" The pegasus got closer to his friend, to hear him better.
"If something happens to Sugar and me, please take care of the kids." Warm Glow beseeched.
"Sure, of course," The white stallion assured. "Wait kids? Plural? I've only met Kali."
"Yeah, I got two more on the way," Warm Glow smiled at Silver.
Silver smiled and sighed, "You old hound dog."
"Heh heh, well..." The red stallion yawned, interrupting himself.
"I should probably go," Silver said, getting up.
"Alright, thanks for stoppin' by," Glow answered, before drifting off to sleep.
'I should get to the castle anyway..." Silver thought, 'See if that new transfer is here yet.'





"We're so glad to have you with us, Ms. Burnout," Diamond Jubilee smiled warmly at the young mare sitting across from her, "We were having some trouble finding a suitable first lieutenant for our captain, but after reading your resume, and meeting you personally, I'm sure you'll do fine."
"Thank you Ma'am," Burnout replied, "with all due respect though, where is he?"
"Oh, I'm sure he'll be around any minute," Diamond reassured.
At that moment, as though on queue, Silverlinings came flying in through the skylight, rather than use the front door. He landed next to the two mares and blew his single black bang out of his eye. "sorry I'm late, M'lady," He bowed to Jubilee.
"It's quite alright, Silver," Diamond Jubilee said, as she gestured to Burnout, "This is Borealis Burnout, your new partner."
Burnout took Silver's hoof, mindlessly, as he extended it in a hoofshake. Her mind was elsewhere, like how handsome her new partner was...
"Great to meet you!" Silver said to Burnout, "Hopefully this arrangement can work out." After a couple seconds of Burnout's vacant expression, the white pegasus cleared his throat.
"huh?!" This seemed to snap Burnout back to reality, "Oh, sorry, I was just... hi." She said finally, after a little rambling.
"Uh... hey," The stallion chuckled, "I was just saying it's great to meet you."
The brown mare cleared her throat, "likewise," she answered. "Sorry, just a little nervous meeting new ponies," She apologized.
"It's alright," Silverlinings said, "so, do you want to get started?"
"Uhm, sure," Burnout replied.
"Then let's get going. I need to brief you on what's been going on," Silver informed.
"It's alright," Burnout declined, "my information file had the details on what's been going on. Something about a monster that looks like a changeling but probably isn't, right?"
"There's a bit more to it than that, but that's about the gist of it," the stallion chuckled.
The pair of pegasi spread their wings and left the way Silver had come in, completely disregarding the door.





"Alright, Burnout, you ready to head out?" Silverlinings asked, as he prepped for the nightly patrol.
"Yeah, let's go," Burnout answered as she made her way to the door of the barracks.
The two of them headed out and immediately took to the skies, so they'd be able to cover more ground. After about half an hour of quiet streets, something caught Silver's eye, down towards an old warehouse.
"Try and keep up," He said suddenly, as he did a straight nose dive towards the ground.
"Wow, ok then," Burnout was slightly shocked at this sudden course in action, but she followed her partner's lead and dove down. They were getting closer to the ground gaining speed the faster they went: one hundred yards, eighty yards, sixty yards, thirty, ten, five. Right before he was about to hit the ground, Silver pulled up and began gliding through the alley ways. The brown mare never lost sight of him once as she followed him through the tight streets, weaving in and out and around paths which hadn't been touched in years. Was he serious? This was so dangerous, so reckless, so unorthodox, so... awesome! Right as Burnout was really about to get lost in the adrenaline of the moment, she saw her partner spread his wings to catch himself and slow down. She also slowed down and came to a halt next to him and they both stared up at the old, worn building which had caught Silver's attention.
"There was something definitely making it's way here," Silver said, "why is it always a warehouse? Can you get anymore cliche?" He mumbled as he approached the front doors, cautiously.
Burnout stayed quiet as she followed to the doors. Silver gave her a glance, then motioned towards the door, signaling her to breach. She nodded and proceeded to kick the door open and move quickly and quietly inside. She stayed low and silent as she moved to a nearby crate and peaked around it to get a good look at the warehouse. Silver followed and moved to a different crate across from Burnout. The sound of the door being kicked in still echoed through the vast, mostly empty building. The only other sounds came from rats and the occasional rusty hook which had been caught in a cross breeze.
For more than a minute the pair didn't move, breathing softly, not wanting to alert an unknown third party.
"What're we looking for?" Came a curious voice behind Silverlinings; he immediately reacted by spinning around taking whoever it was by the throat.
He inevitably released this pony however, after seeing who it was, "Deadbolt? What're you doing here?"
"Same reason you're here," Deadbolt answered, "You saw something come in here, didn't you? Well, so did I."
Silverlinings nodded as Burnout approached the two of them.
"You know what it had to have been, don't you?" the red pony asked.
"I have an idea..." Silverlinings said, looking around the warehouse. "Oh," he said, noticing Burnout's approach, "Deadbolt, this is my new partner and first lieutenant: Borealis Burnout; Burnout, this is my second lieutenant: Deadbolt."
"Hey," Burnout smiled as she greeted the stallion, "nice to meet you."
"It's a pleasure, really," Deadbolt answered, "i hope you last longer than his last partner."
"Yeah, well it's going well so far," she commented, "so I take it you didn't want the position, or you'd probably be standing where I am right now, huh?"
"Not really," Deadbolt shrugged, "Not exactly my thing; too much responsibility and whatnot."
"Right, well," Silver cleared his throat, glancing over at Deadbolt, "we should go find whatever it was that came in here."
"Right!" Deadbolt agreed. "I think it was making it's way over towards those stairs," He pointed at a set of stair cases leading down.
"Let's go have a look," Burnout said. The three of them began descending down the stairs, the only light coming from Deadbolt's horn and whatever was emitting the orange glow from beyond the bottom of the stairs. Upon their arrival and the lower level, they discovered a smelting facility, which looked to still be operational. There were catwalks to move about on and large vats of molten metal, moving around on wire harnesses, rotating in unison, in a mechanical and autonomous fashion.
"Let's split up and have a look around," Deadbolt suggested, as he began to move along the rickety catwalk.
"Right..." Silverlinings replied as he and Burnout went off on different walk ways. After a few minutes, when Silver knew he should've been well out of ear shot from the other two, he still felt uneasy. That's when all of the pieces fit together. "How long?" He asked aloud.
"How long what? Be specific?" Came a calm voice from behind him.
"Where do I begin?" Silver inquired, without turning around. "Let me start with the simple one," He turned to face his target: Deadbolt. "How long have you not been you?"
"Well done, Silverlinings," Deadbolt commended, his voice becoming a little more proper, "Allow me to answer that question, with a question; how long have you known?"
"Since you showed up here at this factory. I just needed a little more evidence which you've been so kind as to give," Silver responded.
"Well, to answer your initial question, only about an hour before I got here." Deadbolt's face grew curious, "Tell me, what gave me away?"
Silver smiled, smugly, "Well, first of all, you said you saw whatever it was come in here, but Deadbolt's, the real Deadbolt's, patrol pattern didn't lead him anywhere near here. Also, you said you didn't want the position of first lieutenant, but the real Deadbolt wanted it more than anything; but he wasn't an option for the position due to his severe ADD. Which leads me to the final, damning piece of evidence against you; you've been attentive and have been able to stay focused this entire time. The real Deadbolt had nowhere near that big of an attention span. Sorry to call you out like that, but I have one final question: where's the real Deadbolt?" Silverlinings asked, wrapping up his explanation.
After a couple seconds of silence, the Deadbolt doppelganger answered, cold and flat, "Dead."
Silver was taken aback. This subsided quickly, however, as shock was quickly replaced with anger, "You bastard!" He was about to attack the fake Deadbolt, but it beat him to the punch, literally. The copycat shed it's skin, revealing a metallic endoskeleton, as it lunged towards Silver, fanged mouth agape. Silver quickly backed up and took flight. He was grounded quickly, however, as the metallic creature, which turned out to be what they had been hunting, extended its arm and grabbed one of his wings, tearing into it with it's claws. Silverlinings landed with a crash and groaned as he tried to get up.
Burnout heard the skirmish echo through the cavernous room and took flight trying to find the source of the disturbance. When she found Silver and the creature, she quickly landed next to her partner to make sure he was alright. Upon seeing the extensive damage done to his left wing, she hurriedly turned to face the mechanical menace. It made low clicking sounds as it's blue eyes turned a deep blood red. It looked ready to pounce again, but rather than go after the brown mare, the changeling-like robot instead slashed at one of the chains holding the platform up. All three of the beings on the catwalk lurched forward, as it began to give. Burnout turned back around to Silver and began pushing him to safety. The white pegasus was able to stand, but his vision was blurred, due to his loss of blood. After a few seconds, the robotic fiend threw its claws against another chain support. This caused the certain platform they were standing on to give completely, sending half of it crashing into one of the cauldrons of molten metal. Silverlinings was able to get to safety and Burnout took off, ascending to higher ground. She circled around and looked at the catwalk, now half submerged in the metal magma. She couldn't find any sign of their opponent. She assumed it was gone now; it had fallen into the vat of liquid metal.
"I think it's over," Burnout called to her partner, who was still recovering from the attack.
"Thank Celestia...." Silver mumbled under his breath, leaning back and sighing in relief.
As Burnout was going to go join him, something brushed past her flank. She was about to turn around, mid-flight, but it was too late. All she saw was a flash of white, before another pegasus grabbed her by the throat and pushed her at subsonic speeds into the far wall, where he held her there, gasping for breath. She looked into the pegasi's large red eyes. It blinked once and the ruby gaze was replaced by very familiar golden eyes. This pegasus was now a perfect impression of Silverlinings.
"How... the hell...?" Burnout managed to cough out as more pressure was added to her throat.
"By analyzing the blood and feathers left over from my assault," The Silverlinings duplicate explained, in a tone both reminiscent of the real Silvers and that of a robot, "I was able to transform my physical characteristics to that of your colt-friend."
"Hey!" She spat. "He's... not... my......" Burnout wasn't able to finish her statement, as she had lost consciousness. The android released it's grip and Burnout dropped landing and smashing into a stack of crates.
"No!" Silverlinings cried as he stood up on his own four hooves. He flapped his wings once, but immediately winced at the pain that shot into the left side of his body. 'Damn it," He thought, Can't fly like this... He quickly lost his balance again, as the doppelganger landed right in front of him on the catwalk.
"What the hell do you want from us?!" Silver cried out in frustration.
"Same thing as any other living, breathing thing on this planet," It answered. It beat its wings once and quickly swooped in close to Silverlinings and whispered in his ear, "To exist."
With that, the autonomous menace slashed more chains holding the catwalk up, with it's newly acquired pegasus wings, which were razor sharp. The real white pegasus began to tumble down the slope, but not before grabbing a hold of his copycat and dragging it with him.
"You fool!" It cried, with a malicious glare, "you've killed us both!"
"Maybe, but at least Stableton will be safe," Silver replied as he pushed himself into the guard railing; which, in turn, wedged his lookalike into the opposite railing. The two sat, dangling halfway over the edge into a fiery oblivion.
"Stableton?" The fake Silverlinings laughed out right, "This goes far beyond that of your pathetic little pit of a home!"
"What do you mean?" Silverlinings asked.
"Why should I tell you," It hissed, "We're both going to die anyway!"
"Tell me, damn you!" The white pegasus punched the android hard enough to shake the railing, which inched them closer to their demise. The fraud chuckled and spit out what appeared to be oil, "You pathetic worms," It turned to face Silver, one of it's eyes was cracked, revealing it's more aggressive red ones, "will you never learn? Violence, only begets more violence. If you kill me another will only take my place; better, faster, stronger and with more malcontent than I, for your wretched, worthless species!"
Silver threw another punch at the creature, attempting to shut it up. When it looked back at him. The eye which had been damaged before was now completely blacked out, while they other was flashing a bright yellow. "I see...." It sighed, "I suppose, it is as it was and forever shall be: a pointless endeavor." It released all grip and allowed the pair of them to slip out of safety. Silver, having accepted this outcome early on, made no effort to fly to safety. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, not in his condition. As he closed his eyes, and prepared for the inevitable, he felt a tug at his right fore hoof. He opened his eyes to see Borealis Burnout, holding onto him, while dangling herself over the end of the catwalk. 
"You're not dying on my watch!" She called out to him.
Silver slowly looked down to see himself, or rather, his lookalike slowly descend into to the magma of the smelting facility. It made no effort to fight it, it simply laid there, letting itself get engulfed by the molten metal. This was the last thing Silverlinings saw, before he passed out.





Silverlinings slowly stirred. Past visions of what had happened swirled around his head: the changeling creature, the fight, everything. As he slowly opened his eyes, he was met with only white, as it was extremely bright and his eyes needed to adjust.
"Uuuugh," He groaned as he attempted to sit up.
"Daddy!" He heard as his chest was met with a small force that cause him to fall backwards, back into his bed.
When his eyes finally became completely clear, he was met with the sight of his niece, who was hugging him tightly. "Hey Sweetie," He said, in a raspy tone.
"I'm so glad you're awake, Daddy," Marigold nuzzled herself into Silver's chest, squeezing him tightly.
"Me, too," He said as he cleared his throat. "Hey, Sweetie, can you go get me a glass of water?" He asked.
"Sure!" Marigold Mist hopped off the bed and trotted out of the room. silver looked around and saw his was in the hospital. he was hooked up to an IV and heart monitor. He sat up completely and stretched. This was a bad idea, as a horrible pain shot through his left side.
"Oh yeah," He sighed, looking at his wing, which was in a cast, "crap..."
At that moment, he heard the soft trot of some pony approaching. He looked over at the door and found Burnout standing in the doorway. She smiled and said, "Marigold said you were awake."
"Did she?" He asked, with a sarcastic smile.
"Cute kid, by the way," Borealis commented as she entered the room.
"Thanks," Silver replied, "Don't get the wrong idea though, she's just my niece."
"Really?" Burnout jeered, "She seems to think otherwise."
"Well she never knew her real father, just me," Silver sighed.
"Is that so?" Burnout asked, looking Silverlinings over.
"So what about this?" Silver pointed to his wing.
"The doctor said you'll make a full recovery. the attack missed anything vital. It's just gonna sting like hell for awhile," Burnout explained.
"Great," Silver said, dryly, as Marigold returned with the cup of water.
"Here you go, Daddy," she smiled as she handed the cup to him.
"Thanks, Sweetie," The white stallion thanked as he drank his fill. After he was done, he turned back to Burnout, "What about you? Are you staying; in Stapleton, I mean?"
"Are you kidding?" Burnout smiled, "If I don't stay, who'll protect your sorry flank?" She jokingly socked Silver on the shoulder.
"So that's a yes?" Silver asked.
Burnout smiled again, "Absolutely."
> Chapter Eight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"What're we going to do?" Borealis Burnout asked Silverlinings. The two of them, Kali, Willow and Platinum all sat around the parlor, in the large estate on the edge of Stableton. They contemplated their predicament: Diamond Jubilee, the mare in charge so-to-speak, was missing; kidnapped in her sleep like so many other ponies in town.
"Well," Silverlinings turned and looked at his partner, "I've already notified Lady Jubilee's lawyers. They're gonna come in and straighten some things out, and-"
"She's not dead!" Platinum snapped. "You act like these lawyers are coming to read her will. She's not dead... just missing." She shifted, restlessly in her seat.
Silver cleared his throat, "Platinum, you-" He was once again interrupted by the doors to the parlor swinging open. In the threshold stood two stallions. One was a light tan with slicked, grey hair. He wore a black tie, white shirt, and a blue and black pinstripe coat, which matched his dark blue eyes. This earth pony's cutie mark was a large "500" with a large blue arrow pointing up. His associate was a dark grey unicorn with a silver, slicked mane with a single streak of red. He wore a red tie, black shirt and a maroon dress vest which matched the rectangular, wired framed sunglasses he wore. This other pony's cutie mark looked like a large "₡", but the line through the cent symbol was a slash of blood. He had a large briefcase at his side.
"Good afternoon." The tan pony smiled a large, white grin, similar to that of a politician: it was too perfect. His teeth were as straight as an arrow and gleamed brighter than any normal pony's. The two new ponies entered the room and glanced around at the group assembled in the parlor.
"Wait a minute," Silver looked over the two, well dressed newcomers, "You aren't Lady Jubilee's lawyers."
"No, sadly, Miss Jubilee's regular lawyers couldn't make it," The tan pony pouted, with an obvious tinge of sarcasm, "but fear not, for we are more than qualified to deal with this particularly precarious, problematic and albeit perplexing predicament in which you poor ponies find yourselves in today."
"Is that a fact...?" Silverlinings wasn't convinced.
"Indeed, my mindful, meticulous and melancholy friend!" The tan pony assured as his associate placed the briefcase on the coffee table in front of the fireplace.
"Melancholy? What would make you think I'm melancholy?" Silverlinings asked.
"It's written all over your face," The stranger pointed out. "All these tired lines and the small bags under your eyes; you, my friend, are one, down-in-the-dumps stallion. In my line of work, you need to learn to read pony's faces."
"And what line of work is that?" the white pegasus inquired. "Who are you guys?"
"Ah, where are our manners?" the tan pony cried. "I am Fortune Five Hundred and this is my associate Blood Money." He gestured to the grey unicorn organizing papers on the coffee table.
"What kind of a name is that?" Platinum Jubilee asked.
The grey pony turned, slightly, and looked at her. The lighting was perfectly positioned so Platinum could only see her reflection in his glasses. He smirked slightly and huffed, "You don't wanna know, kid."
"Now," Fortune cleared his throat to regain every pony's attention, "we are here to properly assign a successor to this vast estate, for this period without Miss Jubilee. Upon her return, power over the property and all the rights therein will return to her."
"Well it's obvious, isn't it?" Burnout piped up. "Platinum is the only blood relative of Diamond Jubilee living here, so isn't she the successor?"
"Not necessarily, my dear," Fortune smiled his fake looking smile. "There are many ins and outs to this sort of thing. As Miss Platinum is not of legal age yet, she cannot take the role of reigning over such a large property. Now please, let us do our jobs."
With that, he took out a pair of spectacles and joined Blood Money at the coffee table. They began reading over papers and Fortune Five Hundred called out bits of information. "Lady Diamond Jubilee has been ruling for close to sixty years... deceased spouse... no living children... Platinum Jubilee: only living relative... mother died in foal birth... father died in war..."
After half an hour, the tan pony turned around and stared at the group, "It seems that there is no suitable heir to the property, so I'm afraid-"
"What about us?" Burnout interrupted again.
Fortune looked at her, slightly bewildered, and asked, "I'm sorry, Madam, what was that?"
Burnout stood up, "Silverlinings and I? He's in charge of pretty much everything else 'official' around here, and I'm in charge of Platinum Jubilee, so why don't we take care of the castle, together?"
The tan stallion took off his glasses and began cleaning them. "My dear, if you let me finish what I was going to say..." As he put his glasses back on, he shot Burnout a look that radiated with pure malice; far harsher, it seemed to her, than she deserved. "Now then, since there is no proper heir to the estate, I'm afraid the property will be placed in the ownership of the government. Now this is where it gets extremely technical. The transaction will take some time to complete, and until such time has come, I suppose we could place the two of you in charge of the property," He looked from Burnout to Silverlinings.
Silverlinings, still not optimistic about the two lawyers, glanced at Burnout before asking Fortune Five Hundred, "And if Lady Jubilee returns...?"
"Well, in the small unlikelihood of Miss Jubilee's return, I'm afraid the property would stay under government ruling."
Burnout, who was now a bit frustrated at the lawyers, asked, "And if she comes home before you can finish the legal papers?"
"Well in the even smaller likeliness of that, then..." The tan pony thought for a moment, "... the property would remain under her name."
'smaller unlikeliness?' Silverlinings thought. These guys really were pricks. "How long," He asked standing up, "will all the paperwork take?"
"A rough estimate sets the date in..." He glanced over at one of the papers Blood Money was shuffling back into his briefcase, "a few months. You know how clogged up the legal system is." He smiled.
'Good,' Silverlinings thought, 'that'll give us enough time to go find Diamond Jubilee.





"Alright girls, are you ready?" Twilight Sparkle looked around the room. Standing around the same table she was were Fluttershy, Apple Jack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Rainbow Dash stood off to the side, a look of unease on her face.
"Twilight," She asked, "are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Well, no," Twilight answered, honestly, "but what's there to be discovered, without a little risk?"
"But Twilight," Fluttershy piped up, "we don't know what'll happen when Rainbow Dash looks into the mirror."
"Precisely," The purple mare nodded. "We don't know; which to me is the scariest thing."
"But Twily," Apple Jack looked down at the dark mirror, "wouldn't it be safer just t' lock the d'rned thing up, an' forget about it?"
"I'm afraid not," Twilight responded. "This is our only lead on the disappearances, and now, it's more serious than ever. Lady Jubilee is missing."
"Then what're we waiting for!?" cried Pinkie Pie. "Rainbow Dash! Just come look at the mirror already!"
"Ya know, Pinkie, you're right," Rainbow Dash smirked and walked over to the table. "I mean, what's the worst that can..."
The cyan mare found herself staring deep into the mirror. Just like the others, she saw herself, horribly twisted from reality. The colors in her mane, red, yellow, blue, were the complimentary opposites in the mirror: green, purple, orange. Her eyes were fuzzy, and grey. Her wings were molting, thin and unhealthy. Rainbow Dash gasped. However this time, the gasps were heard all around the room. All six of the mares could see Rainbow Dash's reflection; not just her! The last gem stone began to glow, then beam with a light brighter then the others. The mirror face cracked and a low humming sound could be heard emanating from it. Before any pony had time to react, the mirror exploded, and a black fog began to fill the room, created from concentrated darkness. The six mares gasped for breath, but it was useless. One by one they began to lose consciousness. They fell to the ground, enveloped in the fog.





"Twilight? Rainie? Any pony?" Silver walked around the corridor where the guests were staying. Not a sign of any of them anywhere. He checked the rooms, one by one, until he got to Twilight's. The door was locked.
"Twilight?" He knocked. "are you all in there? Are you alright?" He waited, but there was no reply. He knocked louder, "Hello?" At this point he was worried. "Twilight, if you're in there, please open the door. It's part of my job to ensure your safety. Twilight?" Silver, not having a key to the room, did the only thing he could do: he broke it down. After trying several times, the hinges finally gave and the door swung to the side. In the room were all the usual furnishings: a bed, night stand, a table... The table. There were scorch marks all over it. As Silver got closer to investigate, his head throbbed and as vertigo set in, he fell to the floor.

Hear me, Mortal...
You know not the powers you meddle with...
We have transcended beyond your petty coil of reality, into a realm of existence beyond your grasp.
Your friends were unlucky enough to stumble upon one of our gateways.
Let them serve as an example.





The six mares slowly made their way up the slope. The ground they were walking on was cracked and scorched. The sky was a fiery, brilliant orange. As they reached the top of the hill, they were able to get a good look at the landscape: spires of crimson red rock jetted out of the ground, stones of the same color, emblazoned with runes of an unknown tongue hung weightless in the sky. In the distance, a tehind herself, at where they had come from. It wasree of endless brilliance stood strong and powerful. Five of the ponies looked on in amazement, but the blue mare in the back looked to be a simple crater, nothing significant about it. She looked around, for some point of return.
Upon finding none, she muttered to herself, "Sorry Sil... gonna be a little late for our date..."