> Assassin's Tears IV: Loyalty by Corruption > by MisterGTFO > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > "Peace" and Services > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prologue Chapter: "Peace" and Services It was a sunny day in Ponyville. Despite of that, Twilight Sparkle was in her library, reading and writing a note to the Princess about the extraterrestrial life other than Ponies. She still did it, despite Spike telling her that it was very "dumb". As Twilight putted her quilt down and her book also with her deactivation of her levitating power, She heard a creaking noise at her entrance door. She went downstairs to see what it was. It was Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash walked towards Twilight several feet before stopping in her tracks. "Hey, 'Twi, One of the patrol Pegasi got sick with the pony pox. I need somepony to replace her and I was wonderin' if your Lover Stallion could lend me a hoof and two wings." She asked. Twilight would agree to it but Silent Wind wasn't home. He was out in the Barren Thornforest. Saying that he was praticing. "Sorry, Rainbow Dash. 'Wind isn't here. He said that he was going to The Barren Thornforest to practice on his skills. He was only here 'till Morning." She said. Rainbow Dash, disappointed. Wandered out of Twilight's library and closed the door behind her. Twilight turned back and putted a hoof on her chin. She wondered what Silent Wind would be doing right now and became curious. She snapped out of her thinking as She heard Spike run down the stairs, calling her name over and over again. "Twilight! Twilight! Just.. wait a second." Spike said, putting one claw up towards Twilight. He soon burped up a scroll out and it fell on the ground of the Library. Twilight made a small spark with her horn, levitated the scroll up to her face and unrolled it. She began to read it out loud. "Dear, Twilight. This is of an urgent call. I must inform you that there is a small threat within Equestria and I must ask for your Coltfriend's aid once again. Please inform Silent Wind of this. Your dear mentor, Princess Celestia.." She wondered what the threat was and how it even happened. Thankfully, Princess Celestia had mentioned it was a small threat and was not dangerously harmful. Soon, Twilight heard a knock on the door. She turned her body around and walked towards the door, opening the knob with her magic. She came to see her brother, in his full suit of Armor but not wearing his helmet. She looked at Shining Armor, who had a very serious expression on his face. "Shining Armor? What is it?" She asked. Shining Armor allowed himself inside Twilight's library. As he walked past towards his Sister, he turned around. Wanting to talk to Twilight. "I'll have to make this quick. There's some unknown portal within the Sapphire mines near Canterlot and Me and My Royal Guards have been ordered to hold... Changelings.. coming within the portal." He said amazingly, at a calm voice. Twilight couldn't believe what She was hearing. The Changelings had already been defeated and killed off, never to cause harm ever again. But now, Changelings were coming back. It made no sense to her at all. "How?! I thought they had been wiped out. Is there anyway to close it?" Twilight asked. Her brother nodded in reply. He knew that he could destroy it and wipe it off the map of Equestria but what Twilight didn't know, was that there were large amounts of Changelings spouting out from within the portal. "Yes, but I must request help. That's why I'm here for." Shining Armor said. Despite of telling Twilight that he came for help, Twilight already knew what her brother was going to say. Unfortunately, her brother was about to get some disappointing news. "Silent Wind isn't here.. He's in the Barren Thornforest.." Twilight mumbled out, not wanting make her brother freak out. Surprisingly, Shining Armor only replied with a gasp. Shining Armor had to quickly move out but before doing that, He had bidded farewell to Twilight. With that, He left Twilight's Library, closing her door behind him. Twilight sighed and walked back upstairs to sit on her bed. Curious and slightly worried, She began to wonder of what Silent Wind could possibly be doing at a time of immediate danger as She touched the Silentblade Amulet that Silent Wind had given her on her recent birthday. "Oh.. 'Wind, what could you be doing right now..?!" She thought. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Silent Wind, who was in the Barren Thornforest, was sprawled on the ground. Gasping in exhausted fatigue. He had been working on a new spell which consisted of him manipulating his born ability to manipulate wind. Having no more energy to stay in his 'Armor of Shade' mode, it forcefully deactivated. He stood up and sat on the soil. Still exausted, he weaved left and right until he heard Shade speak to him. "You shouldn't use that forming ball spell again, it's really heavy to hold and fly towards an enemy. Giving them enough time to repel you. It put's extreme strain on your body also. Forming a ball of dense wind is hard and you might even faint if you push yourself too hard." Shade explained within his mind that it was quite dangerous to use his new 'ability' he had learned over the past months. Silent Wind shakingly stood up and walked toward to the closest Thorn Tree nearest to him to get his belongings as he replied to Shade's lecture. "I know it's a bit dangerous to use it but that's why I'm making improvements on it. I gotta try to make the ball smaller so that it's weight isn't big and threatening. You see, it's like water press-" Silent Wind was interrupted as Shade began to talk again. "I think I understand, Silent Wind. Say, doesn't Celestia have anything for you to do anything today?" Shade wondered. Silent Wind didn't think about any plans for him. Even if he was Celestia's official Guardian. He wasn't needed that much now since there wasn't anything evil that had to be ridden of. Which he didn't want to do since he was tired and slightly lazy. "I don't think so. I hope nothing's wrong, today. Anyways, I'd best get back to Twilight. She'll probably wanna be with Me and I just can't decline that Mare because that'd be really mean." Silent Wind said within his mind. He stopped once he was near to the Thorn Tree that held his belongings. He had thrown away his old attire and wore a new one since it was beginning to get old. Silent Wind took off his right shoulder guard which was complete leather. He strapped the single strap that held it onto his right shoulder across his chest. He then wore a long-sleeved long dark-grey coat which was slightly closed with a thin white rope. It had a high collar up to Silent Wind's neck and had light blue lines on the edges. As Silent Wind putted his coat on over his shoulder guard and his wings went through the small holes of the coat for it specifically, it flowed freely as he was done putting it on. He took his high-collared cloak and wore it which was Dark blue with a White Silentblade Insignia on the back of the Cloak. Once he checked his hidden blades that were covered with his old brown leather bracers, He left the forest by flying up in the air and looking in the distance for Ponyville. He saw it down in the south not far from where he was and flew down to a flat land. He then walked the whole distance, still tired from his overuse of his new ability. After several minutes, Silent Wind sighed. He was getting annoyed by walking on roads, He began to regret ever going to the Barren Thornforest that was quite far from Ponyville. He should've just went into the Everfree Forest but if He did that, He knew that Celestia would get upset. As he was still walking, He heard something, like whistling. He looked around and saw a Chariot come at him. He thought of only one thing and reacted. "Uh oh." He thought. Silent Wind saw that Chariot was coming at him. He quickly thought of what to do and the only thing he thought of: Duck. He putted his hooves under his head and flexed his muscles. Though oddly, the Chariot never hitted him. The only thing he felt was a touch on his left shoulder. He began to relax his muscles and looked to his left. It was Shining Armor who looking down on Silent Wind with a confused expression. "You should think more before you do something.." Shining Armor suggested. Silent Wind nervously chuckled and stood up. Wondering what Shining Armor could want with him. He never did ever have any requests from the Captain of the Royal Guard. "Ha ha... Yeah.. Hey, Shining Armor. Why are you here for me?" Silent Wind asked. Shining Armor then remembered what he was going to do and it had to be quick. Shining Armor quickly thought of what he was going to say. "Silent Wind, I'll explain everything. But now, come with me. Now!" Shining Armor teleported himself to his Chariot and Silent Wind got on also. As they were in the air in the Chariot, Shining Armor explained of how the strange portal had appeared and what they had to which was to simply close it. Silent Wind had thought that was quite simple, until he heard of how Changelings had been appearing from the portal. Silent Wind decided that he'd have to take his hidden blades up once again. Seeing how the danger was right now. "Okay, I get what you're saying. But, do you have your Guards at the mine?" Silent Wind asked. Shining Armor nodded. Shining Armor had already deployed several units to the mine once he got word of the strange portal that had mysteriously appeared. The Chariot began to lower down onto the surface and stopped. Silent Wind made a small noise and looked to his right. They were already at the Sapphire Mine. Shining Armor jumped over the Chariot and ran his way into the mines. Silent Wind did the same thing and ran, his cloak flowing freely as he ran faster and faster. He eventually hovered lowly in the air, flying slowly where he could catch up with Shining Armor. Silent Wind began to wonder how many Changelings were appearing and questioned Shining Armor with his head turned towards Shining Armor. "Hey, how many Changelings are comin' out anyways?" Silent Wind asked. Though he didn't have his head turned to Silent Wind, Shining Armor estimated his answer and he told Silent Wind how much he thought there was. "If you want to know, possibly dozens. I can't put my hoof on how many are coming out, though." Shining Armor explained. Silent Wind raised an eyebrow as he heard the word 'dozens'. He hoped that the task he was doing wouldn't be too long since He just wanted to go back to Ponyville and be with Twilight. As they were halfway through the mines, they saw a Changeling. A single whelpling and nothing too big. Silent Wind and Shining Armor sighed, as they saw the Changeling acted in confusion. Silent Wind chuckled and looked at Shining Armor. "Just.. stay here, okay?" Silent Wind ordered. Shining Armor made a small 'hmph' and crossed his forelegs as he waited for Silent Wind to rid of the Changeling. Silent Wind prowled down like a Tiger and flew at the Changeling at high speed. The Changeling noticed and squeaked in fear. Silent Wind knew it was going to run away and he even faster and punched the Changeling right in his snout, propelling the Changeling into several carts. Silent Wind rolled his right long, black sleeve and touched his special armband with the Silentblade Insignia. A small could smoke covered his right foreleg and a Sickle appeared with a long chain that came out of Silent Wind's right sleeve. A steel handle with bandages around it. It even had a dark steel blade to it. Silent Wind grabbed the handle with his mouth and threw it at the Changeling. Before it could hit the Changeling, Silent grabbed the chain that followed the hurled Sickle and swunged the Sickle at the Changeling's neck. Shining Armor thought he was going to aim at the Changeling's neck, but instead, Silent Wind grabbed the Changeling's neck with his chain and dragged it towards it. Silent Wind letted go of his chain and drew his left hidden blade. He charged at the Changeling propelling at him, grabbed it's neck with his right hoof and slammed it down to the tan ground. He drove his left hidden blade into the Changeling, making the Changeling gurgle and croak before dying. Shining Armor sighed as he saw that it took a while. Silent Wind walked away from the dead Changeling and rolled up his right sleeve and touch his armband on his forearm, causing a trail of smoke where the Sickle was, which now vanished. Silent Wind rubbed his muzzle, sheathing his left hidden blade and hovered back to Shining Armor. "Yeah, we're good. Let's go." Silent Wind said clearly, hovering in the air while moving. Shining Armor was slightly upset with Silent Wind. Seeing how he took a while just to get a single Changeling. "That was a bit too long and violent.. but, at least we didn't attract anything." Shining Armor said. Silent Wind stopped hovering and began to walk. Eventually, He turned a corner, seeing a long road which lead deeper down into the mines. Silent Wind looked at Shining Armor and shooked his head but smiled. Shining Armor glared at Silent Wind with a questioning expression. "Looks like we got a welcoming party." Silent Wind joked. Shining Armor went over to Silent Wind and looked at the road which lead deeper down. He saw at least eleven Changelings in their way. They all growled and giggled in excitement for new prey. Silent Wind blinked and flexed his eyes for a moment and his Silentblade-Shade eyes appeared, glowing purple and black. Shining Armor became surprised as they saw that they had already dealt with his men. Shining Armor's horn glew with his light pink aura as he prepared to fight. Silent Wind drew both of his hidden blades while hovering once again. He looked at Shining Armor, his eyes glowing purple eyes. "I'll go on first. I'd like to see if these Changelings can hold me. But they won't." Silent Wind mocked the Changelings with a small presence of Killer intent. Silent Wind said no more and charged at the Changelings, Shining Armor accompanied him with his support. Shining Armor had to close the portal down before the Changelings would rise up again. But most of all, He wanted to know where the portal came from. He snapped out from his quick thinking and focused on eliminating the hostile Changelings. > No Rest for The Mutated > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter One: No Rest for The Mutated It only took several seconds for Silent Wind to rid of all the Changelings in his way. Though something made him curious and questioning. The last Changeling, was spitting corrosive acid at him. To Silent Wind, it was odd since even he knew that no kind of Changeling could do such a disgusting thing. Silent Wind moved towards it's twitching body as it was barely alive. Silent Wind looked back, seeing Shining Armor look below the twisting stairs that lead down into the deepest of the mine. Silent Wind looked down at the Changeling and it gave Silent Wind an angering growl. Silent Wind soon jumped back as he heard the Changeling gurgle in pain. He took a closer look as he skidded back with his hoof and saw that the Changeling was disintegrating into ash. Once it was nothing but ash, he didn't know what the hay just happened. Only one word came up to his mind as a hypothesis. "Mutation." Silent Wind thought. Before Silent Wind could think anymore, Shining Armor tapped his shoulder, urging to move on. "We must hurry, now!" Shining Armor ordered. Silent Wind nodded in reply to his order. Silent Wind ran ahead and Shining Armor followed his lead. Silent Wind didn't care to take his time, nor did Shining Armor. Unfortunately, as they got moved more deeper down, They saw even more Changelings by the seconds. All were cut down and eliminated by Silent Wind and Shining Armor. Soon after, Fatigue began to affect the two stallions as they began to feel completely exhausted. Silent Wind had extended his strength too much and Shining Armor did the same thing with his magic of course. Though it took a while, They had both managed to get to the portal. Which was completely infested with Changelings who had already made nests around it. Silent Wind looked at the portal. It was completely blue, nothing too interesting other than it was producing Changelings. Shining Armor was running up to it, attempting to close it down with his magic that he had exhausted. Shining Armor knew that he didn't have enough magic left to completely seal it. He came to a hard decision and decided to use his own energy to supply him enough magic for him to seal it. He turned his head at Silent Wind as he was looking at the glaring Changelings, who were about to attack at any moment. "You'll have to give me time, can you do that?!" Shining Armor hollered. Silent Wind made a small chuckle. indicating that he was agreeing to Shining Armor's request. Shining Armor looked behind while attempting to close the portal with his magic. "Yeah, I'll help anyway I can!" Silent Wind replied. Silent Wind closed his eyes for a moment, sheathing his Silentblade-Shade eyes from the Changelings. His physical features began to change, his coat becoming purple, darker than Twilight's coat. His mane becoming white, his teeth becoming much longer and sharper. He sighed and opened his eyes which were now covered with red and black. No longer purple and black. The most that stuck out was his wings, his wings that turned into bat-like wings and were larger than his normal wings. Silent Wind sighed and turned his eyes left and right, detailing which one would be attacked first. "Taking the middle would be best to take first. I have to make sure to keep them at bay and not let 'em get to Shining Armor.." Silent Wind thought. He made a crunching noise against the dirt ground as he pushed himself at the nine Changelings that were charging at him also. He took the closest Changeling near him and pushed his tip of his hoof against it's neck. He took out his hidden blade, causing it to pierce through it's neck. He re-sheathed his hidden blade, swiping his right hoof across two Changelings that propelled away from Silent Wind, hitting several mine equipments. Silent Wind saw that there were six left. He quickly thought of using 'it' but Shade objected to it. "No! It's best not to use it right now!" Shade objected. Silent Wind didn't agree to it since he wanted to try it out anyways, besides, he wanted to see what could happen to real hostiles other than trees. "Why not? It's the perfect time to use it!" Silent Wind replied back within his mind. He quickly held out his left hoof and there were sounds of whistling wind as a small ball of moving wind began to appear on Silent Wind's hoof palm. He began to become exhausted to just make one since it took a lot of energy to simply form dense wind into a now big ball of dense wind. Once it was prepared, he ran at the nearest Changeling that he locked his eyes on first. He dashed at it, with his cloak flowing freely. He pulled back his left hoof that had a large ball of dense wind and propelled his left hoof at the Changeling's chest. The ball began to rotate violently against the Changeling's hard flesh and all the sudden, a large vortex bursted outwards towards all the Changelings, making them all hit a object in their way and all of them falling down on the ground with a thumping sound. Silent Wind turned his head to his right to hear squelching noises from three large, moving eggs. He heard sharp screeches as the eggs bursted open with three new Changelings. The only thing was, they were different. The first one he had laid eyes on was a Changeling with a small, skinny body but his head was large and had the edge of an Ax on top of his head. He looked at the second one and saw that it had it's tongue sticking out. It was odd but other than that, it wasn't appealing to his eye. The third one had crusted limbs both hinds and forelegs. It was odd since that it would make it slower and that it didn't have wings. Every Changeling had wings and even Silent Wind knew that. "This is odd... I've never seen these weird Changelings. Something's not right.." Silent Wind thought. Before he could think any further, he felt something ominous on top of him. He looked at the Changeling that had shell-protect legs and saw that it had it's right hind-leg risen up. He quickly moved out of the way as the Changeling moved down and slammed down where Silent Wind was. Silent Wind skidded on the ground with his hooves and looked at the cracked ground that the odd Changeling had done. The limb-shelled Changeling turned it's head at Silent Wind and quickly dashed at him. Silent Wind reacted by dashing at it also and giving it a large fist to it's muzzle. It flew back several feet and looked at Silent Wind, it's shell peeling off from it's face. Silent Wind gave a small smirk and heard a screeching noise as if a hawk was nearby. He looked to his left and saw the large-headed Changeling, charging at him. Before Silent Wind could react, the Changeling lower it's head and swinged it right back up at Silent Wind's head, making him fall over on his back. The headbutt force was hard enough for Silent Wind to grab his head in pain as blood flowed down between his eyes. He raised his head up slightly while still holding his head with his left hoof, to see the Changeling's right hoof on his chest. He tried to get up but then the Changeling hissed as it putted it's right hoof on Silent Wind's shoulder. Silent Wind began to hit the Changeling with a sideways hook with his right hoof. It made the Changeling's swing to the right every hook but it only angered it. It blocked Silent Wind's arms as it pulled it's head back, about to give Silent Wind a fatal headbutt. "It's closing! Run!!" It was Shining Armor's voice. Silent Wind raised a free hind-leg and kicked the Changeling off him. He felt large the sucking force of the portal as buzzing sounds emitted from it. Every Changeling was being sucked into the portal with screechings of several Changelings. "'Wind! Over here!" Shining Armor yelled, making a gesture at Silent Wind. Silent Wind hovered over to Shining Armor, ignoring the crashing and buzzing sounds from the portal but all the sudden, he felt something tug on his left hind-leg and looked back in shock. It was that one Changeling who had it's tongue sticking out before and it's tongue was tied around Silent Wind's hind-leg. Silent Wind was slammed to the ground as he was being dragged to the portal, being taken along with the Changelings. "No!" Shining Armor roared. He attempted to go and help Silent Wind but since he used his own energy to turn it into magic, he became extremely exhausted and buckled down in fatigue when he had tried to teleport to Silent Wind. "Oh- Oh buck!!" Silent Wind panicked. He tried as hard as he could to crawl back but the force that was pulling him was too much. The force of the sucking portal and the pulling of a long, long tongue. He soon lost grip of the dirt ground and quickly, was reeled into the portal. The last thing he heard was Shining Armor's yelling. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In an odd vision, Silent Wind only saw a static vision which he was sure he was hearing murmuring. He couldn't put his hoof on what was he seeing or whatever was saying something to him. All he could point out was two words that didn't even sound right too much. "De..feat...Qu..een.." With that, Silent Wind snapped out of his trance-like dream. He saw that he was no longer being dragged by a long tongue and looked around, feeling delusional inside his mind. He saw the tropical greens and orange, fallen leaves on the grassy, dry ground. He looked up to see a dark, grey sky. He knew where he was at that point, he was in the Everfree Forest due to all of the vegetation he had seen. He wiped off the sticking leaves that were on his dark-grey coat sleeves and sighed. Despite of him knowing that he was on Equestria and nowhere else, he knew something didn't sum up. It was barely dark during the day time since the Weather Patrol had scheduled the whole week as every sunny day. He had to find out where he exactly was, he knew that the Portal wouldn't just take him outside the mines. That would make no sense at all to Silent Wind. "Something doesn't feel right.. I gotta find out what's really going on." Silent Wind said, rubbing his right shoulder with his shoulder guard on top of it. He sat up and sighed. Wondering which town was closest to him, he hovered up into the air to look around him. The closest town to him was of course, Ponyville. Curious if he had gone somewhere or not, he decided to make a trip to Ponyville. As he looked back behind him, he felt something slightly ominous but soon after shrugged it off and focused on getting to Ponyville. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As he got near Ponyville, he oddly noticed that there were less ponies outside than usual and he also took notice of two Stallions near the bridge that lead into Ponyville. It was no question to it, there was something very wrong to Silent Wind now. He knew that the Ponies of Ponyville would never stay outside in a dark, gloomy day and it was actually beginning to rain a bit. Know this, Silent Wind flipped his dark-blue hood over his head and hovered down to Ponyville. But before he went down, he saw a rainbow trail appear. He was sure it was Rainbow Dash. The only odd thing was, Rainbow Dash was flying at Silent Wind, fast. "Hey, it's Rainbow Dash. Jeez, She's really coming at me at fast speed. Wait.." Silent Wind stopped thinking once he saw that Rainbow Dash was flying at him too fast. He didn't have anytime to think any longer. "Uh. Oh." > Knowing The Ugly and The Bad > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Two: Knowing The Ugly and The Bad Silent Wind didn't want to be tackled by a hostile Rainbow Dash since he was already in confusion and didn't also want to be in pain too. He quickly dodged out of Rainbow Dash's hurling body at him by shifting quickly to the left, not looking behind him. He sighed, relieved. All the sudden, he was hit in the back by Rainbow Dash. A blunt pain ached in his back as he fell into the river that was over the bridge of Ponyville. Soon, he regained his focus and swam back up into the river's surface. He soon got on the ground, still feeling a small ache in his back. He looked up, seeing a Rainbow Dash with goggles around her neck. Silent Wind didn't understand why he was attacked by Rainbow Dash since he knew that Rainbow Dash was never hostile towards others unless they show danger towards her or anypony. Rainbow Dash walked up to him, grabbing his Dark-Blue cloak with her left hoof and looking at him in his eyes. "You! You're a Changeling, aren't ya!" Rainbow Dash yelled. Silent Wind's eyes widened in shock. How could have Rainbow Dash take him for a Changeling? It was very odd to Silent Wind. It was foolish to Silent Wind to be mistaken for a Changeling. Silent Wind began to feel frustration within himself. "What? How can you even mistake me for a Changeling! It's me, Silent Wind!" Silent Wind replied, hoping that Rainbow Dash would remember him. Rainbow Dash made a confused expression at Silent Wind, as if She had never seen Silent Wind in her life. "Hey! I've never seen you before, you've gotta be one!" Rainbow Dash denied, pulling back her right hoof. Before she could give Silent Wind a right hook, She heard a voice and so did Silent Wind. "Rainbow! Stop it!" A mare's voice pleaded. Rainbow Dash lowered her right hoof and released her grip from Silent Wind's cloak. Relieved, Silent Wind rubbed his neck and flapped his forelegs to dry his clothing from the river's water. He didn't know that the mare who was talking, was Twilight Sparkle. As soon as he looked up, he saw Twilight's hoof reach for his forehead, as if he was sick or something. The first thing he noticed about Twilight was that she was oddly wearing rectangular glasses, it was very alien to Silent Wind. Twilight soon took her hoof off his forehead and shooked her head at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes in reply. "I'm sure this isn't a mistake.. You aren't a Changeling. Thank Celestia.." Twilight said, relieved. Silent Wind was relieved also but wanted to know how Twilight knew that he wasn't a Changeling without any doubt. But at that moment, he also wanted to know if Twilight even knew him. "Thank you, but Twilight, how did you even know that?" Silent Wind asked. Twilight heard Silent Wind say her name, she was quite surprised that he knew her name. "Oh, you know my name? But to answer your question, I used a Aura-checking spell. Celestia made it so that I could confirm anything that's a Changeling or not." She replied back. Despite of his question being answered, his heart fell when he heard that Twilight didn't know him. He still kept a strong spirit, he never did show any sadness for anypony, especially Twilight. "Oh- uh.. I've heard a lot about you and your friends!" Silent Wind lied, feigning a grin. Twilight smiled and nodded. "I think it's best if you'd come with me. If that's okay with you of course." Twilight obliged. Silent Wind nodded in reply to her request. Rainbow Dash soon barged into the conversation and said that she would have to go into the skies to scout out for any Changelings. Silent Wind didn't completely understand what was happening but what he did know, was that something really bad was happening in Equestria. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As soon as Silent Wind got into Twilight's library which was of course, her home also. He saw that there were no lights at all, just flickering fire's from candles that were placed throughout the librarian's home. Silent Wind wanted to know what was going on which was his main objective right now. Before he could, he wanted to know where Twilight was taking him. After walking through the library, Silent Wind found himself on the balcony. He turned his head towards Twilight, who was fixing the lens on her glasses with her left hoof. "So, what do you want to know? I know that you want to say something." Silent Wind wondered. Twilight was always a curious mare to Silent Wind. Twilight did feel like questioning the mysterious silver coated Stallion that didn't know what was even going on. "Do.. you know what's going on? Did you hit your head or something?" Twilight questioned. Silent Wind should've known that something was indeed feeling ominous. At that point, Silent Wind remembered that he was sucked into a portal. He then spoke up about it. "Well, I do remember being sucked into a portal.. The weirdest thing was that I heard two words that I couldn't really put my hoof on too." Silent Wind said. Twilight gasped, making Silent Wind give her a confused expression on his face. "A portal?! I remember being told of Changelings activating a portal all the way south of here! It must've closed, right?" Twilight asked. Silent Wind nodded, making Twilight sigh in relief. "Yeah.. Uh, I'll just say this and tell you that I think that I'm from another universe of Equestria. Weird, right?" Silent Wind admitted. Twilight didn't find it odd at all. She had actually started her theories and studies on other Dimensions of Equestria, different ponies and personalities in each dimension. She had also been noting her mentor, Princess Celestia of such things. "No, not really. I mean- I recently just made theories on Alternate universes. But I can't do that in the big thing we're in right now.." Twilight said, mumbling the last words that went out of her mouth. Silent Wind wondered what the 'big thing' was and questioned Twilight about it. "Thing? What thing?" Silent Wind questioned. Twilight had already know that the Stallion in front of him was from another universe of Equestria and understood that he didn't know much on what was going on. "I guess that since you're not from here, you don't really know.." Twilight chucked, putting Silent Wind in a much more curious situation. "I'm sure that what it is.. that you can just call it.. war." She finished her sentence. "War? What kind of war?" Silent Wind asked. Twilight re-focused her glasses for a moment and raised her head up, wanting to answer the silver Stallion's question. "A war with the Changelings, of course." Twilight explained, saying it calmly. Silent Wind's mind flashed at that moment. He remembered all of things about Rainbow Dash accusing him of being a Changeling and everything. It was so obvious! Silent Wind saddened, lowered his head with a frown. "How.. will I get back home?" Silent Wind grimly mumbled. Twilight remembered him saying something about hearing several words and decided that was a possible way to his world. To Twilight, it didn't seem like a good one, but Twilight was very kind and would most certainly want Silent Wind to go back to his world since She thought that Silent Wind was a simple stallion who had no special kind of help for the war that was going on. But u"nfortunately, she didn't know anything about Silent Wind. "You said something about hearing words. Do you know what they said?" Twilight wondered. Silent Wind began to focus and attempted to remember what exactly he had heard. Though it had taken at least over thirty seconds to remember what Silent Wind had remembered, it made Twilight's mouth go agape. "I think it was defeat some.. queen. I dunno, but I'm sure I heard that precisely." Silent Wind said with assuring that was exactly what he had heard. Twilight knew whom he was talking about and it was not Princess Celestia. Twilight was smart enough to distinguish words that other ponies said, also being able to know who they were talking about even if they were describing in single words. "You.. must be talking about Queen Chrysalis, the Queen of the Changelings..!" Twilight hissed. Silent Wind froze as he heard that he had to 'defeat' a Queen who was the leader of hundreds, possibly thousands of Changelings. In other words, he would have to kill Chrysalis, in order to get back to his world. Silent Wind lowered his whole body down and was literally sitting down on the wooden balcony floor. Despite of how skilled he was, defeating a Spirit, even sealing away a dark, evil spirit. Silent Wind never did take on a Queen who would most certainly be powerful as him, maybe. To him, it felt as if he was given a test. To see if he could protect Equestria against anything. Still, he was quite shocked on how the Queen whom the voice had spoken of was nonetheless, Queen Chrysalis. "Dammit.. what do I do then..?" Silent Wind asked. Twilight had to remembered that she had to pick up several things within the Everfree Forest for planning. She would also need her friends too. But since Silent Wind was by her, she decided to tell Silent Wind to bring her friends to the Library. "Oh, I have to gather a few things in the Everfree Forest. Can you get my friends back here for me? I need them here. I promise that it won't take long, I'll be back before you." Twilight promised. Silent Wind sighed, but still, he really didn't have anything to do. So just for now, he decided to follow Twilight's orders. "Mmm.. fine. I know where your friends live, so it won't be a problem." Silent Wind agreed. As he got to the Balcony door, Twilight gasped as she saw the white Silentblade Insignia painted on the back of Silent Wind's Dark-blue Cloak. Silent Wind managed to hear the gasp from the Librarian and turned his head to her. "What's wrong?" Silent Wind asked. He didn't like it when ponies around him gasped. It made him feel like something was coming after them. Twilight pointed at the Silentblade Insignia at his Cloak. Silent Wind looked where she was pointing and chuckled. "Yeah? I'm a Silentblade. Nothing too special about that." Silent Wind admitted. Though Twilight knew what a Silentblade was, she was quite surprised to see another Silentblade ever since the large incident that happened. Since the incident happened around her world, of course Silent Wind wouldn't know. She decided that it was right to tell Silent Wind what happened but it was quite hard to say it because Twilight had difficulty to say it. "I know what a Silentblade is.. I just didn't think you were one. But more importantly, I don't ever see ponies like you anymore.ever since that one incident.." Twilight began. Silent Wind didn't know where Twilight was going but somehow, he stayed for a bit to hear what she was about to say. Silent Wind thought about that incident when he was young but nopony knew that. Only the Silentblades, of course. To his curiosity, Silent Wind wondered what the incident that Twilight was trying to explain. "What incident? Tell me, please." Silent Wind asked. Twilight rubbed her left shoulder with her right hoof, Silent Wind noticed, she looked as if she was in a very uncomfortable in saying it. She just blurted it out but it was clear enough for Silent Wind to hear it. "The- The Silentblades.. are dead. Killed by Chrysalis and her Changelings, several months ago! Down in the south.. I'm very sorry." Twilight blurted out. Her eyes closed. Silent Wind thought he had mistaken her say some about the Silentblades dead. All of them, dead. But why did he care so quickly? Silent Wind was feeling oddly weird, as anger began to fill up within him. But then it's was in a silent fit of rage. He decided to not to holler at her. Instead, Silent Wind spoke to her before leaving outside. "It's alright.. besides, that gives me a reason.. to kill Changelings then. I don't care how big or 'great' they are, they're all just insect pest scum to me, now. I'll be back, Twilight." With that, Silent Wind opened the balcony door, closing it his way out. Twilight was a bit worried about what he was going to do. Though she remembered that she had more bigger matters, she opened the balcony door, closing it behind her also. As she gathered her saddlebag, she just hoped that nothing bad would happen to her. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In a dark room, far from Ponyville, Chrysalis laid upon her throne. Watching her subjects repel off the Royal Guards like fleas in a small, black crystal ball.. One of her prince servants, Ignis was being ordered by Chrysalis to do a task. "It seems that we have a little mare moving out from the safe boundaries of Celestia's pathetic little ventures.. Ignis, get this mare, Twilight Sparkle.. bring her to me. I am sure you know how she looks." Chrysalis ordered, her dark voice surrounding the room. Ignis quickly obeyed as he bowed down, his Changeling armor making small noises. He raised up his body and grinned with his pointy teeth, his eyes glared with a red eye and a white eye. "Understood!" Ignis growled with his low, evil voice. He quickly teleported out of the large room, leaving Chrysalis by herself. Though she knew that Twilight was now getting out of Ponyville, leaving her to vulnerable danger. But Chrysalis saw another pony, Silent Wind who had such an amazing spirit inside. Chrysalis noted herself to keep an eye on that silver stallion but for now, she would see Twilight be captured first. "Things.. are getting interesting." Chrysalis mumbled, howling with laughter. > The Odd Bunch > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Three: The Odd Bunch Silent Wind began to ponder on which place to go to first. He had many choices such as Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie's place, the small Cottage where Fluttershy was, Carousel Boutique, Rarity's place, or Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack's home. He knew that finding Rainbow Dash would be found with ease since she usually flew around Ponyville or was at her cloud-made home in the skies. Though just for it to be pushed out of the way, Silent Wind decided to go to Sugarcube Corner. He mostly didn't like Pinkie Pie too much since she was completely unpredictable with her personality, making him always feel uncomfortable around Pinkie Pie. "Ugh.. let's just get to Sugarcube Corner.." Silent Wind thought, now moving away from the entrance door of Twilight's library. As he looked around, he saw many ponies close their windows as he moved past every house in Ponyville. It was quite surprising how everypony was extremely cautious of their surroundings now, even though Silent Wind wasn't a Changeling. Despite how dead the streets were, he still moved on to Sugarcube Corner without any odd activity. Once he got into Sugarcube Corner, he was quite surprised how it was actually still intact with it's pink coloring. Every other house he had passed was grey which was just depressing for Silent Wind to look at. He went through the entrance, looking around as he saw nopony by the counter. The Cakes weren't at the counter, and nor Pinkie Pie was there. He found it odd as he saw that there weren't any desserts out on platters since The Cakes always were creative on their cake-making. Pinkie Pie didn't come out immediately too, it was too odd for him just to stand in the center and move his eyes. He eventually called out. "Hello!? Anypony here?!" Silent Wind called. No signs of response at all. All the sudden, a dark figure from the corner tackled him, making him give a loud grunt. As he was down on the ground on his back, he saw a figure with black rubber suit with a smooth mane that didn't even move as the figure was looking down at him with night vision goggles. The figure soon pulled her googles to her forehead. Silent Wind gasped, recognizing the figure as Pinkie Pie, but looking as depressed as ever, looking at Silent Wind with a cautious expression. "You're one of those buggies! Aren't you, hmm!?" Pinkie Pie accused. Silent Wind wanted to facepalm himself for everypony's dumb accusements at him. To Silent Wind, it seemed that Ponyville didn't get much visitors which made everypony mistaken a visitor for a Changeling. "N-No! I'm not! I was asked from your friend, Twilight. To tell you to go to her library to meet her there!" Silent Wind explained. Amazingly, that made Pinkie Pie's hair poof up again, Silent Wind became completely confused as Pinkie Pie got off him, threw off her goggles and her rubber suit and smiled with her eyes closed. She began to hop towards the door in cheerfulness. "Okey-dokie-lokie!" Pinkie Pie said, hopping out of Sugarcube Corner in a happy state. Silent Wind stood up, slapping his Dark-blue cloak to remove the dust from it. He rubbed his right shoulder since it was being pushed by Pinkie Pie's right hoof. Silent Wind, completely confused on what had happened wondered what Twilight was doing since she particularly never told Silent Wind why she was collecting things. She only stated she was collecting things for 'something'. Despite of being tackled by a hyperactive pony, he became curious. Only because he wondered how crazy could the others be. "Ugh, I just want to go home.." Silent Wind groaned, leaving Sugarcube Corner. As he looked around, wondering where to go, he decided that going to Fluttershy would be best since he knew that Fluttershy wouldn't be completely crazy or at least the least craziest. But he knew little how all the ponies of Ponyville where very different from the ponies of Ponyville from his world. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ After several minutes of walking, he managed to get to Fluttershy's cottage but to only see the windows except the door to be barricaded with boards of wood. Despite of how that made him very uncomfortable, he had to do it since what he was doing was practically his first step to getting back home. He trotted up to the door of Fluttershy's cottage and knocked it several times before hearing some kind of plea. "Um...please! Go away..!" It was a soft voice, Fluttershy's of course. He knocked on the door again, refusing to leave Fluttershy. Unfortunately, Silent Wind should've just walked away as the next knock, Fluttershy's door slammed open and a giant bear tackled Silent Wind, he quickly grunted as he tried to pry off the bear's palm off his chest, but to no avail. "G-Gah! Help!" Silent Wind gasped. He didn't want to resort to his 'Armor of Shade' mode otherwise not only would he kill an animal, he would also possibly tear up Fluttershy and her cottage. As the bear raised it's free, right palm up in the air, about to pounce him. At the moment, Silent Wind tensed up to brace it, he heard Fluttershy again. "Oh dear goodness! Stop..!" Fluttershy whimpered. Before it could pounce Silent Wind, it looked back and made frowning face, followed by a slight growl. The giant bear immediately lowering it's right paw and taking off it's left paw off Silent Wind's chest, walking back into Fluttershy's cottage. Silent Wind quickly gasped in relief as he felt a big burden be lifted off of his shoulders. Fluttershy floated over him and looked him in with a concerned expression. "Oh my, a-are you okay..?" Fluttershy asked. Silent Wind was too frustrated to even answer that question. In his mind, he wanted to yell at Fluttershy, forget his whole errand. But if he was to get home as soon as possible, he would just have to be normal. But it was actually hard to not be mad. "Oh yeah, I nearly got pounced by a big bear and could've died. But yeah, I'm totally great." Silent Wind said with sarcasm. Fluttershy sighed, taking it quite seriously with Silent Wind's words. Silent Wind got up and sighed, annoyed by his near-death incident. "Oh.. okay then..! I hope my little bear didn't hurt you.." Fluttershy hoped. Silent Wind rolled his eyes while slapping his long coat and silver-colored wings. Despite being a bit upset at Fluttershy, he was actually impressed at how she calmly handled the bear from attacking him. But other than complimenting Fluttershy, he had other things to tell her. "Yeah, I'm fine. Anyways, your friend, Twilight Sparkle wanted me to tell you to go to her library and wait for her there.." Silent Wind explained. Fluttershy made small questioning expressions but eventually, she nodded, agreeing to Twilight's request given from Silent Wind. "Ok.. I'll be there in a teeny tiny moment and I'll go.." Fluttershy mumbled. But loud enough for Silent Wind to hear. He nodded in agreement with Fluttershy's mumbling answer. Fluttershy walked back into her cottage and closed the door behind her. Silent Wind smiled as he walked away. "Thanks, Fluttershy!" He hollered, looking back. As he said his farewell to Fluttershy, he walked down the valley, deciding to go to Rarity and inform her as well. Fortunately, he knew where she could be and that would be nonetheless than at Carousel Boutique, her home as well as her shop. He shook his head in disappointment as he saw that even Fluttershy had changed. He wonder how Rarity had changed also. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Silent Wind actually had a long walk to Rarity's Carousel Boutique since it was actually far from Fluttershy's cottage. Eventually, he did get there, the Boutique was still in it's white-purple clear color. But to Silent Wind, it was no surprise since he knew Rarity would always keep it tidy as possible since she was always like that. Silent Wind walked up to the house and opened the door, wanting to quickly end this and get to the other one. As he went into Rarity's house, he saw that it was actually bright, but only because of the flickering torches around the house. He quickly heard a shuffling noise, he quickly drew his long left hidden blade, it's bright, white blade shining as it was revealed by the light's of the fires. All the sudden from the dark corners of the Boutique, he was tackled by a purple figure, it was oddly feeling scaly. Silent Wind was grabbed by his coat but Silent Wind had much more strength than the figure and rolled on top and into the light. He nearly attacked the figure with his left hidden blade as he pulled his hidden blade back, about to stab the figure. The figure putted his hands in the air in fear. Silent Wind quickly halted his attack as he recognized the figure as Spike. To him, why was Spike at Rarity's Carousel? They were in a time of war, so why was he here? "Spike?!" Silent Wind gasped. As he stood still on top of Spike, his left side of his cheek was punched by a hoof and he flew off Spike, slamming against the door. He rubbed his left cheek, show a bright red color on his cheek. Silent Wind grunted, still rubbing his cheek. He saw another white figure jump in front of Spike and yell something out to Silent Wind that sounded like an intimidation yell. "You shall not hurt my dear Spikey-Wikey!" The figure sneered. Standing in a hoof-to-hoof postition. Silent Wind sheathed his left hidden blade and putted his hooves up, indicating that he meant no harm to both the somehow dangerous tailor or the baby dragon. "I don't really have any intention to do that! I just- I'm from behalf of your friend, Twilight Sparkle. She wants me to tell you get to her library and wait for her there I swear!" Silent Wind blurted. Rarity stopped tensing her body and stopped stand on her hindlegs and stood on her fours. She helped Spike with her magical hold and landed him on his feet. "Twilight, hmm..? I hope that you are sure.. but there are more concerns. Spike, are you fine, darling?" Rarity asked. Silent Wind grunted quietly, as he was completely unworried by both the dragon or the white mare. "I'm fine.. thanks, Rarity." Spike thanked. Rarity hugged him in an warm embrace, making Silent Wind tilt his eyes up in embarrassment. Spike hugged back also. Silent Wind wanted to quickly have an answer from Rarity as soon as possible. He stood up, no longer rubbing his cheek. He moved towards the two as they broke their hug. "Anything for my Spikey-Wikey." Rarity said. Kissing Spike's forehead. Silent Wind began to feel even more embarrassed and just wanted to leave even more. He quickly broke their attention to each other by the sound of clearing his throat. "I just need an answer, will you come over to wait for Twilight or no? Please say yes." Silent Wind begged. Rarity nodded in his request. Rarity grabbed Spike and putted him on her back, showing that they would go immediately for her friend. "Good, can you inform your friends, Rainbow Dash and Applejack to come too?" Silent Wind asked. Rarity nodded at his assigned errand since she had hitted somepony and the most best thing he could do right now was to pay her debt to him in forgivance by helping him at least once. "Of course, darling. I shall see to it. Please forgive me for this unfortunate incident." Rarity pleaded. Silent Wind nodded and walked towards the door, about leave but before he did, he only felt that it was polite to forgive Rarity because afterall, it could've been much worst. "You're forgiven, I'll see you back at library, Rarity." Silent Wind said, opening the door and leaving and closing the door behind him. As he closed the door, he felt a gigantic burden come off his shoulders, in a mental way of course. He was relieved but a bit upset at Twilight for putting him in such a barbarous errand he was putted in. Groaned all the way back to Twilight's library, slightly exhausted and a bit hurt from the callings. "Twilight.. why would you put me in such a small but annoying errand!? Ugh..!" Silent Wind thought, walking down the roads of Ponyville with his head down in slight exhaustion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Twilight, who was in the Everfree Forest, was now finished gathering ingredients for a certain item she was making for the certain thing she was planning that even Princess Celestia knew. As she checked everything off her list, she sighed, relieved that she had what she needed. As she was about to head back on the roads of the Everfree Forest, she halted as she heard a fwooming noise as if there was flowing fire. She quickly turned around and saw a Changeling, who was big and bulky. He had a left red eye and a right black eye. To Twilight, it was really unique and she was quite afraid for a moment but stood her ground, despite seeing that it wore Changeling armor and had a 'X' scar on it's forehead. "Who.. are you?!" Twilight asked, holding her ground as good as she could. Though the Changeling chuckled as he made small tiny steps towards Twilight, glaring it's eyes at Twilight and chuckling. He touched it's small, green beard and stopped. It's horn glowed, making Twilight make a questioning noise. "I am Ignis, a Changeling prince of Queen Chrysalis.. pleasure to meet you, Twilight Sparkle. Now.. come. With. Me!!" Ignis growled. Green flames flowing around his body indicated that he was going to even hurt Twilight just to even capture her. He knew that Chrysalis didn't want Twilight dead, but then, Chrysalis never said anything about not getting his hooves dirty to achieve her. > Things to Protect > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Four: Things to Protect Twilight shook at his growling and somewhat, threatening request. She didn't know anything about any princes of Chrysalis or their rather twisted abilities. The only thing she knew was that she was in deep trouble and was about to fight to escape from the situation. Twilight looked at Ignis' appearance and had already seen him as a hostile Changeling by his holed hooves, his pitch-black coat, and his green hair. Despite of encountering a dangerous and very mysterious Changeling even though she had seen various Changelings, she kept her calmness and questioned the Changeling without a glimpse of stuttering. "Why.. must I come with you?" Twilight asked. At that point, she wondered why she had even said that since afterall, she had no intention of willingly coming along with a Changeling. Ignis was now beginning to feel slightly annoyed, seeing how the lavender mare was in a way, testing his patience. "I am under no obligation to tell you, now come with me or I will bring you to the brink of death and haul you off." Ignis said flatly, with a slight feeling of an intent tone. Twilight knew now that she would have to resort to battling, she was quite well in battle by herself but then, without the elements, she felt odd being by herself but wouldn't get that to her head. Twilight closed her eyes for a moment as she took off her saddlebag and opened her purple eyes again. "Then I have to stop you.." Twilight said intently. Those words made Ignis laugh out loud, he found Twilight's words very humorous and outrageous. "You speak of defeating me but.." Ignis began, conjuring a green-fired phoenix in his left hoof. It screeched as it flew on Ignis' shoulder. "You speak a words of a imbecile, and it shall be the other way..!" Ignis hissed, his left eye glowing even more redder. Twilight prepared for what she was about to go through as she felt pittering raindrops on her lavender coat. But the shivering rain was the least of her worries. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back at Twilight's library, five of the Mane Six sat around the built-in shelves as they sat around each other, waiting for Twilight to come back and hopefully, in one piece. Silent Wind was also among the group, being a bit impatient as he waited for Twilight with barely any sound at all, Pinkie Pie didn't even utter a word, Silent Wind finding that oddly weird. Despite of Silent Wind being impatient, Rainbow Dash was even more impatient, floating in the air with several impatient grunts. Spike was upstairs, taking his typical long naps. "Ugh! What is taking Twilight so long!?" Rainbow Dash yelled. Everypony turned their heads at Rainbow Dash, wondering why she was hollering so loudly. Applejack who was sitting against the side of the stairs stood up, attempting to calm Rainbow Dash down. "Now calm it, Rainbow, Twi' might be comin' back as we move our mouths. So just stay where ya are and wait for 'er." Applejack ordered. But, for Rainbow Dash, she usually didn't listen to anypony if she was being ordered to do something against her own will, she quickly refused, making Applejack grumble in disappointment. "Now, why must it rain?! My beautiful crinière will be become ruined!" Rarity exclaimed, looking outside with the door opened. Silent Wind was about to ask what 'crinière' meant but decided that finding out what was taking Twilight so long was much more important. He stood up from his sitting position and cleared his throat, grabbing everypony's attention as he saw Rarity close the library door. "Okay, if you all can't wait, then I'll go out to look for her. You can all wait here." Silent Wind said, moving towards the door and opening it. Before he was about to leave, Applejack stopped him. "Now, hold it Sugarcube! Ya can't think y'can just go in the forest and find 'er! Don't ya know what lies out there?" Applejack asked. Silent Wind still held a blank face, not caring about what lurked within the Everfree Forest. Pinkie soon agreed as she hopped over to Applejack. "Yeah! There are a bunchy of big-scary monsters, don't go!!" Pinkie Pie screamed, breathing heavily. Applejack looked at her for a moment and shook her head as she turned her head towards Silent Wind. "As ah was sayin' to ya, y'can't go in there, it's pretty rough over there and ya might end up losin' yer life." Applejack explained. Silent Wind wasn't surprised, he knew it'd be quite dangerous but nothing was too dangerous for him, he learned how to fight against anything that was really big or really dangerous. He sighed and shook his head. "Don't worry too much, I'll be back with Twilight in one piece, I promise." Silent Wind promised. Applejack and the others were quite surprised by Silent Wind's bravery and all of them lowered their heads, giving a quick nod. "Alrighty then, on y'go now." Applejack shooed. Silent Wind smiled back and nodded. He made a quick hop outside and closed the door behind him. As he felt raindrops touch his mane and his snout, he quickly putted his cloak hood and sighed, at first he didn't know where Twilight would be but then, he remembered how he had the ability of instant clairvoyance since it was one Shade's abilities. He slowly closed his eyes, allowing his senses to become more tense. Within seconds, he felt Twilight presence and quickly turned his head towards the Everfree Forest, now knowing where Twilight was now. "Twilight's over there! She's in trouble, I felt it!" Silent Wind talked to himself, quickly flying towards the Everfree Forest in a quick hurry to help Twilight before something fatal happened. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Despite all of Twilight's efforts, the Changeling was too powerful with his powerful fire control. Twilight propelled into a tree near her and a small trick of blood began to drip down from her mouth and down to her chin. Ignis saw that enough was enough and dashed up to her, holding her neck and restraining her with his left forearm. He began to touch her forearms with his free right foreleg, making her twitch and yelp in pain, she had forgot that she had burns around her hindlegs and her forelegs. "Heh.. It appears that you no longer can defend yourself. This would have never happened if you just came along with me." Ignis said. Twilight closed her eyes in a forgiving thought to her friends. "I'm so sorry, everyone!" Twilight thought. She felt herself being tangled in green, sticky ropes and saw that she was being taken but then, she opened her eyes and saw Ignis' face being pushed by a silver-colored hoof from the left, she quickly became curious who could've it been and of course, it was nopony else but the Silentblade she had just met, having a face of rage with black and purple eyes that she couldn't put her hoof on. Ignis flew against a nearby tree and became surprised by the hit he had taken to his right side of his face as his eyes glowed in a fit of rage at the interruption he was given. He looked up and immediately recognized not the silver-coated pony in front him, but his eyes. Eyes of a Silentblade. He was quite surprised how there was still a live one. Silent Wind stood by Twilight, seeing her glasses on the wet grass only several feet by her. He quickly checked on Twilight to see she was fine, he immediately saw that her forelegs had taken burns and her face took a beating as he saw blood trickle down her mouth. "Twilight, are you okay?" Silent Wind asked, looking into Twilight's eyes with his purple-black Silentblade eyes that once were azure blue eyes. Twilight couldn't utter a word, she was too hurt but at the same time, very surprised how Silent Wind simply brushed the Changeling away from her. Silent Wind looked at the green, slimy ropes around her, about to cut it. But, he decided that taking out the Changeling was much more important. "Twilight, stay here. I'll handle this, okay?" Silent Wind ordered. "O-Okay.." Twilight muttered under the sound of falling rain. Silent Wind turned his head with determination at the Changeling who was now rising up and quickly closed his eyes to concentrate. Twilight became surprised as she saw Silent Wind, covered in a black-purple armor that looked as smooth and exquisite as Celestia's sparkling crown. His coat was white, his eyes now black-red in a color change, his cloak in a somewhat-negative color as his insignia was black, the rest of his cloak was white and the same thing for his long coat though it covered the back and the forelegs where usually the rest of the armor was. His now bat-like wings stood out of the armor and of course, the long coat too that was able to be kept on Silent Wind with a small white string that connected the collar together. The biggest thing that stuck out was the white, glowing aura surrounding him. Silent Wind smirked as the Changeling stood up, angered at the interruption. "You interfere!? You fool!!" Ignis roared, shooting a large green bird out of fire. Silent Wind sighed as he hovered up in the air, clapped his hooves together as a mask covered his mouth, leaving his glowing red eyes only visible. The fire eagle missed, hitting the tree behind Silent Wind. The changeling re-focused, seeing the Silentblade no longer in front of him. Instead, he heard a piercing noise on top of him, becoming more louder and closer. His black ears twitched at the noise. All the sudden, a large bang pierced the pittering noise of rain. The Changeling spatted out dark-green blood as he felt his back become smashed by Silent Wind's falling elbow attack. Silent Wind, with a blank raised up his free hoof, about to give the Changeling a fatal blow. Before he could, at the corner of his eye, he saw a large flame encircling Ignis' left hoof. In an instant, an explosion of green fire clouded the two, blinding the Silentblade. As he regained his sight, Silent Wind looked down, no longer seeing his enemy downed on the ground. Several yards away, Ignis' was hiding behind a tree, breathing heavily and horrified that in just mere seconds, he was beaten down by a Silentblade. At that point, he realized that it was no ordinary Silentblade and had identified Silent Wind's conjured armor as the power of Shade, a power that Chrysalis always had large envy on it since it always belonged to the Silentblades. He quickly knew that he had to fall back and inform Chrysalis of a new threat against the Changelings. "I must tell Queen Chrysalis of the new threat.. I must go-" Before Ignis' could sync his thoughts in, he heard a cracking noise, followed by a sharp pain in his chest. He coughed out even more dark-green blood than ever. He shakingly looked down, in shock, he saw his chest, penetrated by a wind-conjured blade, his blood dripping down the blade, it appeared to be as long as a spear in fact, it was longer than a spear to him. Behind the tree, Silent Wind had found him, manipulating his own wind to form into a longsword with enough force to even penetrate a stone wall. "How..How..?!" Ignis chocked. "I can also track you too. Before I kill you off and send you back down to the depths of Tartarus, I'm going to ask you a few questions." Silent Wind said, Ignis could hear him clearly. "Why.. should I.. answer you?!" Ignis asked, in anger as he saw himself at the brink of death. "You should, otherwise the pain in your chest will be much sharper." Silent Wind explained, laying his left side on the tree as he had his right hoof with the longsword penetrating the bark. Twilight stood up, wobbling slightly but had enough strength to stand by herself. She began to walk over to Silent Wind, wanting to hear what Ignis had to say also. Despite of the longing rain. > Feelings and Thoughts > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Five: Feelings and Thoughts Silent Wind, getting impatient began to push the blade even though it had already pierced the Changeling's chest. Ignis still felt pain surge through his body again. Despite of how great and "powerful" he was and having several months of trying to stay within his 'Armor of Shade' state, he began to feel a bit woozy and dizzy. There were still the needs for the power he needed in order to stay within his state he was in right now. He quickly said again to answer him once again. "I'm not going to repeat myself..!" Silent Wind hissed. Despite of all his attempts, Ignis had no will to tell him anything about anything and in fact, he was willing to die to simply keep his pride for Queen Chrysalis. He shakingly brought up his hoof, putting it on top of the conjured blade's edge, giving a small cut on his hoof but this time, he did not grunt in pain. "You.. shall get nothing.. from me! For even in the brink of death, I shall not betray my loyalty and trust to Chrysalis.. you may think that you are fighting for righteousness but what is righteousness.. heh..heh.. that is the question, Silentblade. I am quite sure you.. know that.. your kind is dead, those you care for gone. Once you are vanquished, there will be no trace of the Silentblades... You may have defeated me.. but you will fall by the other's hooves, your kind shall no longer be-" Ignis was cut off as he felt the blade go up, cutting up his heart. He gave a small gasp as he felt it. The last thing he heard was Silent Wind's now dark-voice. "Don't speak anymore of the Silentblades." Silent Wind said flatly with a twisted smiled, with small feeling of evil that even Twilight even felt even though it was just a moment of it's feeling. She quickly felt it as he said his words to Ignis. "What was that feeling that shifted?! It was so dark and cold!" Twilight thought to herself, shaking a bit. Silent Wind stood up, his wind-conjured blade disappearing in the process. He quickly hopped in front of Twilight as he hear Ignis give a piercing scream, disintegrating to ash on his death. Silent Wind reversed his 'Armor of Shade' mode, turning back to his normal self with his silver-colored coat, his azure-blue eyes, and his now exposed soft, spike hair. After all that, he had forgotten that it was still raining as he looked up into the dark-grey sky. He looked behind him, seeing an injured Twilight standing up. "Twilight, are you okay?!" Silent Wind asked. She nodded slightly and attempted to make several steps towards Silent Wind, but instead, her legs buckled, threatening to make her fall. Silent Wind quickly noticed and flew towards Twilight, catching her by putting his right foreleg around her neck. Twilight shifted her eyes towards the Silentblade's face. "Here.. let me help." Silent Wind obliged, looking into Twilight's eyes as he was grabbing Twilight's cracked glasses and putting it on her eyes. She quickly sighed in relief as she saw that she had prevented from falling down. Despite being safe, her hooves were burned and she had no chance of even walking normally back to Ponyville. "Th-Thank you.. but... I think- I think I can walk- ah!" Twilight yelped as she saw Silent Wind duck under her and carry her, with the Silentblade's two forelegs on carrying her lavender back. Silent Wind usually never took 'no' for an answer and decided to just take her back. "No, I don't think you can walk. Don't worry, I promise not to tell anypony about... this." Silent Wind promised. Twilight nodded as Silent Wind took flight into the air. As Twilight was looking at Ponyville in the horizon, she nervously looked up in Silent Wind's face, who was also looking at Ponyville. She couldn't help but blush at that moment, she particularly never had anypony hold her like she was some kind of princess or what so ever. At that moment, she could somehow feel that she would have some kind of affectionate feeling towards the Silentblade but Silent Wind was way out from that point and only cared to get back home. He rather wouldn't make any connections towards anypony in the world he was in right now otherwise, they would just get sad after realizing his farewell once he defeats Chrysalis and leaves the Alternate world of Equestria and going back into his universe of Equestria. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Several minutes later, both of them got to Ponyville. Silent Wind was lucky not to sustain any injuries but unfortunately, Twilight's hooves had not severe, but serious burn wounds and was bound to be kept in bed for a day top. As they got near the library, they had forgot that it had stopped raining, causing the dark skies to simply become grey. Silent Wind landed on the ground, with Twilight on his back and walked slowly towards the library to ensure that he wouldn't give pain to Twilight anymore. As soon as they got inside, the five of the Mane Six gasped, seeing Twilight with burned hooves, bruised cheek and a trickle of blood coming from her mouth. They all ran towards the two, wondering what had just happened. "Holy Cowbuckles! What'd 'appen out there?!" Applejack yelled. The others nodded, wanting to also know what had happened too. "Well, Twilight got attacked by a Changeling. Luckily, I took care of it and I saved her. She's got a few injuries but she'll heal up in no time. I hope.. right now, whatever Twilight wanted us to be here for, I guess that it'll have to be postponed till she recovers. Sorry, everypony." Silent Wind explained. Everypony groaned, annoyed of being told to come left. Spike also left and did not stay, wanting to still be with Rarity. Soon, all there was left was the two of them, Silent Wind and Twilight who was injured. Silent Wind quickly brought her up to her bed. He began to look for any kinds of medical items and saw that Twilight was a prepared mare as he found bandages and ointment. Once he needed what he wanted, he flew back to Twilight, bandaging her hooves and her injured head with his mouth and putting ointment on her bruised cheek. He also made sure to wipe the dried blood off her mouth. As soon as he checked, she was fine for now. Silent Wind sat against her bed, sighing as he survived his first day of a war-ripping universe. "Whew.. survived. But how long?" Silent Wind wondered. All the sudden, a voice he hadn't been hearing for several hours came up within his mind. "Long enough to know that you're going to do something important for these ponies." It was Shade's voice. He thought that Shade wasn't active since Silent Wind thought that he was inactive because he was teleported to another universe. He didn't have a actual idea how that made sense but it was a decent claim. "Hey, have you been active the whole time?" Silent Wind asked a thought. Shade was indeed active through the whole time but Shade usually didn't like talking too much. He only talked to help Silent Wind in battle or help him make rather "difficult" decisions. "Of course, I just don't like talking to.. ponies that much even though I am depicted as an stallion Alicorn myself." Shade admitted. Silent Wind was glad to see Shade still with him but began to frown a bit with a thought on his mind. Oddly, Shade felt the emotion himself and questioned it right away. "I feel that you are concerned. What is on your mind, Silent Wind?" Shade asked. Silent Wind was sighed, he was slightly thinking about back home. All he wanted was to go back home and hopefully, be with Twilight. Silent Wind rubbed his head with his left hoof, followed by a chuckle. "Well, I'm just thinking about home.. I feel a bit sad for Twilight. She probably can't stop crying right now.. I wish she could be a bit stronger, but I can't blame her. But, I just don't really know if I'll even get back home. Will I or will I not? I just.. I just thought about that.." Silent Wind said a thought. A small tear streamed down his right cheek, his emotions getting the better of him. "I am sure that Twilight still has hope that you'll come back. In this world, there is always hope. She cares and loves you so much that she knows that you will come back. So, stop feeling doubt and replace it with belief that you will come back to her. For you are the most important thing to her." Shade said with caring words. Silent Wind was quite surprised by his words of comfort as he usually not that soft. Shade was not usually the comforting type to say such words. "Thanks, but since when did you get a bit caring?" Silent Wind wondered. "When you became my host and master, of course. I will always do something to serve or help. That is my duty to protect for that is what your mother and father would have wanted." Shade explained. Silent Wind smiled as Shade mentioned his parents. His parents were both Silentblade leaders but the real leader was his mother, Umbra Silentblade. He never knew much about his mother but he knew that she must've loved him a lot. His father was a strong stallion who was part of the Silentblade bloodline. He was rather fine until the dark, ancient entity, Deathmoon took him. Silent Wind remembered how he defeated Deathmoon, banishing him to the midnight realm. "Thank you, Shade." Silent Wind thanked. "Pleasure." Shade replied. After the conversation, Silent Wind took a small nap against Twilight's bed. It wasn't comfortable, but at least he had his rest. After all the saving and battling, he decided that it was about time to rest his head till tommorow. During a time of rest, he felt his head being tapped. He slowly opened his eyes and looked up, his head facing toward's Twilight's face who was looking down in concern. Silent Wind slowly rised up his head, shaking it in the process. He slightly turned his eyes towards the window, seeing that it was somewhere around midnight. "Hm? You're awake.." Silent Wind softly said, followed by a long, drawn out yawn as he putted back his head down onto Twilight's bed. "Um, well you might want to look behind you." Twilight said, pointing her hoof behind him. Silent Wind's eyes opened wide as he heard that somepony was behind him. He particularly didn't like it when somepony creeped behind him. That was, until he saw a yellow light and had a feeling of a positive presence behind him. He shakingly looked behind him and his eyes went wide as he saw that the figure was nopony else other than Princess Celestia. "P-Princess Celestia?!" Silent Wind surprisingly said. He wondered what Princess Celestia was doing behind them. But all Silent Wind saw was a blank, serious face. It was as if Princess Celestia knew who Silent Wind was and she knew that he was a Silentblade. A former Silentblade, but still a Silentblade by blood and flesh. As Twilight sat in her bed, He raised himself up by standing, looking at Princess Celestia, wanting to ask why she was here but before Silent Wind could do that, he saw that Princess Celestia was going to say something. "Hm, I knew I had felt something of concern.." Princess Celestia shifted her eyes towards the injured Twilight. "..I see that she has some kind of protector." She finished. Silent Wind nodded. He did feel like a protector. Even a guardian possibly. "I guess you can say that, Princess." Silent Wind admitted. Princess Celestia wanted to thank Silent Wind for protecting her protege. "I thank you for protecting my student but.." Princess Celestia stopped. Silent Wind became a bit confused at what else what she was going to say other than "thank you". "...I was hoping I could to you in private. If you may, of course." > Conversation with The Princess > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Six: Conversation with The Princess "A talk? With you?" Silent Wind questioned. He usually never was asked for a private conversation with the princess even back home. He strafed his head left and right in wonder. Princess Celestia nodded in reply to the Silentblade's question. "Yes, it will only be a moment. Then, you can go back to care for my student." Princess Celestia promised. Silent Wind turned his head back towards Twilight who was resting her head on her soft pillow. Twilight nodded at Silent Wind, allowing him to go with Princess Celestia onto her balcony. "Alright then, lead on." Silent Wind said. Princess Celestia walked slowly in front of him, wanting to pick where they would speak in private. Silent Wind followed. In his mind, he clearly wanted to know what Princess Celestia wanted to say to him. He just hoped that it wouldn't be anything bad or anything but bad. He already was in a somewhat, bad situation and did not want to be caught in another one. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As they both made up to the balcony, Silent Wind sat against the door that led to the balcony that they were on. Princess Celestia simply stood, looking down on the Silentblade as he looked up at her. Silent Wind sighed as he was getting tired of wait for what Princess Celestia wanted to say. "So, what? What'd you want to talk about?" Silent Wind asked. Princess Celestia was still thinking about what to say. Even though she was in Canterlot, safe from danger, she knew about the Changeling attack that involved Twilight and especially Silent Wind. "I wanted to talk about what I had saw with you and.. that Changeling Prince." Princess Celestia said, knowing of the Prince. Silent Wind took interest as he heard two things, about the incident that took place with him killing a changeling and including what he killed, was a Changeling Prince. To him, they sounded powerful. "You saw that? And what did you say about these prince or whatever..?" Silent Wind questioned. Princess Celestia clearly saw that the stallion in front of him was from somewhere else. Even though she was never told that he was from another universe of Equestria. "I see that you are alien to this world, let me explain more clearly.." Princess Celestia said, clearing her throat. Silent Wind rolled his eyes by the unnecessary actions done by Princess Celestia. "..as you know, this world is in turmoil. Shining Armor and all forces allied to me are fighting the Changelings. Southern from here in the Badlands, where the Changeling main nest is. Though we do not know where it is." "Why can't you find it?" Silent Wind asked in intriguement. He was slight interested in such things mostly since it gave him a better understanding of the confused world he was very alien to. Celestia happily answered back. "It isn't simply out in the open, what we only know is that Changelings are rising from underground. Which simply means, their nest must be under the crust of Equestria. It does not matter how it was made down there, but all we want is to destroy it. Doing so will cause Chrysalis' downfall." Princess Celestia explained. Silent Wind began to understand more as he putted the pieces all together. But, his question was still not answered. "Thanks, but you haven't answered my question yet, what are these "princes" you're talking about?" Silent Wind reminded. "Oh, of course.. you may have never heard of these princes before nor has my student or her dearest friends. I have forbidden them from going into the fields of battle. The wielders of the Elements of harmony cannot die, since they are our only hope of winning. These princes I mentioned are what you may say.. undead renowned heroes.. reborned as Changelings. I have no hypothesis on how the wretched queen could do such a thing as I know that it is impossible to reanimate dead bodies with simple nests. The Changeling Prince you had just killed was Fire Heart, he was the one to have all knowledge of fire spells. Even more than Star Swirl the Bearded. Yet, I am surprised that you easily defeated him." Princess Celestia admitted. "You probably never heard of me, My name is Silent Wind. I'm a Silentblade. Well, a former one but still a Silentblade in blood and flesh, of course. You must've felt how I was back there." Silent Wind explained. Princess Celestia was surprised, hearing that the pony in front of her was a Silentblade. At that point, everything began to make a little more sense for Celestia. "A Silentblade? I hope that you aren't hostile. I am quite surprised that there are still Silentblades alive after the known attack from the Changelings that wiped them all out from this world. What is your story, Silentblade?" Princess Celestia said. Silent Wind's right eye twitched as he once again, hear the agony of the Silentblades wiped out. "Yeah, well.. long story now.." Silent Wind began. Silent Wind began to tell Princess Celestia everything about him. His whole life, his time in his world and how he was not from the world he was in now. He even told him how he went to the Ponyville of his world, meeting Twilight Sparkle of his world also and falling in love with her. Also how a conflict happened between his kind and The Princess Celestia of his world. Once he was done with that, he explained how he was sucked into the world he was in now and what he had to do to escape. After he was done, Princess Celestia began to take Silent Wind seriously after hearing that he had to kill Chrysalis to bring him back to his realm. "I see that you must defeat and slay the one whom we are targeting the most in this war, but after seeing what you have done to protect my student, I now trust you. Silent Wind of the Silentblades, will you be my student's guardian? I know that she will allow it." Princess Celestia asked. Silent Wind could not, he had other things that had to be done with his own hooves by himself. "I can't do that, you must take me to the badlands. I wish to fight." Silent Wind begged. Princess Celestia shooked her head in reply to his plea. "Patience is something you must have in order to achieve your goal. Sooner or later, I will tell one of my knights will escort you to the badlands under my orders, of course." Princess Celestia said. Silent Wind sighed as he grudgingly nodded, agreeing to protect the librarian mare who was important to the world. "Fine.. I'll stay here until I'm told I can go." Silent Wind agreed. Princess Celestia moved towards the door as Silent Wind stood up from sitting against the door so that the Alicorn Princess could exit through. But, before Princess Celestia could leave, there were still wonders and questions to be asked by Silent Wind and some by her too. She stopped at the door and looked back at the Silentblade who was now standing up. "Before I go, you said that you fell in love with another Twilight Sparkle, is that correct..?" Princess Celestia asked. "Yeah, so? What about it?" Silent Wind questioned. Princess Celestia was about to say something but decided that it would not be best to say anything about it. She shooked her head at Silent Wind. "It is nothing.. I just wanted to be reminded.." Princess Celestia said. Silent Wind scratched his black, spiked mane with his silver-furred right hoof as Princess Celestia left. As Princess Celestia left, she looked at her student as she was exposed in the moonlight. "So, will you fall for him too.. Twilight?" Princess Celestia thought. After having a thought, she teleported back to Canterlot, leaving small, sparkling dust, leaving both the Silentblade and the recuperating librarian mare to themselves. Silent Wind was now sitting back down on the balcony floor. He palmed his forehead with his right hoof, looking at his brown bracers as he saw his dark-grey sleeve slide down, exposing the bracers. He slightly breathed down on his dark-blue cloak before standing up and walking back inside. He remembered that Twilight had a saddlebag with her as he went back inside. He quickly remembered that it was in the everfree forest. Despite of it being dark, it did not matter to him. "She'll probably want her saddlebag in the morning. I'd best get to it...." Silent Wind whispered. He silently walked out of the house, going into the everfree forest. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the sun rised up, Twilight moaned at the annoyance of the sunlight in her sight. She began to open her eyes weakly, still slightly injured from the wounds of yesterday. She was about to get up and try to see if she had any strength. But she couldn't. Not that she was hurt, but she could feel something holding down on her hindlegs. She gasped, looking down. But in relief, it was Silent Wind. But not just him, her saddlebag was held within his right hoof. She realized that Silent Wind had left during the night to get it back since she knew that she did not have her saddlebag when they both came back. She smiled at Silent Wind's kindness to go back into danger and get her saddlebag. But, her hindlegs were numb and were asleep. She quickly nudged Silent Wind to wake him up. Silent Wind winded up waking up, his eyes were half-open as he began to awaken. "C-Can you get off my hindlegs? They're numb.." Twilight pleaded. Silent Wind's eyes went wide as he saw that his chest was on top of Twilight's hindlegs. He quickly flew up, dropping Twilight's saddlebag and hovered in the air. "Uh..oh! Sorry." Silent Wind apologized. Twilight giggled at Silent Wind's silliness, making Silent Wind blush slightly. Twilight began to feel warm and slightly bright, seeing Silent Wind so positive in such a dark time. It was a while since she ever felt bright and warm. "It's okay. I want.. to thank you for getting my saddlebag." Twilight thanked as she kept her smile. Silent Wind laughed warmly as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Well.. it's nothin' huge. Anyways, are you feeling a bit better?" Silent Wind wondered. Twilight nodded in reply but when she touched her head bandage, she twitched as she felt a stinging pain, making her yelp not loudly, but loud enough for Silent Wind to hear. Silent Wind quickly brought up both his forelegs as he twitched in surprise, afraid of Twilight causing too much pain to her. "Ow.. a little. It didn't hurt as much. But my hooves don't really hurt anymore. I should use a restoration spell.." Twilight suggested. Her purple horn began to sparkle as a yellow wind-like aura began to surround her. As it began to disappear, Twilight took off all of her bandages that were put on her. Silent Wind's raised an eyebrow as he saw that her wounds were gone. He wasn't too surprised since in his world, whenever Twilight or he was hurt, she would just use a restoration spell to heal whatever wounds that inflicted upon them. But he knew it took lots of energy just to simply cast one. "Hehe.. see..? All good.." Twilight panted, exhausted from the use of a spell she had just recently learned. Silent Wind gasped and flew in as he saw Twilight make an attempt to get out of her bed but was about to fall over into the floor. He quickly grabbed her in his arms and brought her in the air with him. Twilight snapped into her senses as she saw her forelegs around the Silentblade's neck and looked up into Silent Wind who was also looking at her too. Both of them blushed, breaking eye contact. "S-Sorry..." Silent Wind apologized, putting down Twilight near her saddlebag. Silent Wind wanted to know what exactly she was searching for. He slowly ascended down, no long flapping his wings and walking towards Twilight whom was checking her saddlebag. "...so whats in the saddlebag?" "Oh, it's nothing really. You wouldn't be interested in it." Twilight said. Silent Wind surely would be interested in it. Afterall, why would Twilight go into a dangerous forest? She certainly knew that. "I would. C'mon, just tell me. If it's a secret, I won't tell anyone. I promise." Silent Wind promised. Twilight didn't particularly know if it would be right to tell a Silentblade about her plans that only she and her friends knew. But, she did feel right around the stallion and he did feel nice with her. How could it go wrong? "...Okay.. but don't tell anyone about it. Only me and my friends know what we're doing.." Twilight begged. Silent Wind smiled and nodded. Twilight took her saddlebag by her mouth and dropped it between Silent Wind and her. She slowly opened up the bag, making suspense around Silent Wind. "Oh man, I wonder what she's got in there.. I hope nothing too big or bad." > The Plans of Good and Evil > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Seven: The Plans of Good and Evil Twilight opened up her saddlebag and Silent Wind was confused as he saw flowers and small branches of various colors. He brought his head back up, wanting to know why she gathered very useless things. "I don't get it." Silent Wind said blandly. Twilight brightly giggled, putting a hoof on her muzzle. She giggled at his confused reaction from the things she had gathered. She picked up one flower with her magical hold, a Malgius Star. It was a yellow flower that looked like a Lily but it's colors were odd. It was mostly yellow with little blue around it. "I.. was picking ingredients for a potion I've researched for a month now. An invisibility potion." Twilight explained. Silent Wind wondered what Twilight wanted with a invisibility potion. He couldn't put his hoof on any uses for an invisibility potion that Twilight would use it in her way, of course. "For what?" Silent Wind asked. Twilight putted back the odd-looking flower into her saddlebag, about to answer Silent Wind's question. "Well, you know how I told you to get my friends?..." Twilight said. Silent Wind nodded as he remembered the agonizing moments with her friends. "..I was going to make this potion so that I could get over to the borders of the forest that separate the south and north. I hear that there's lots of ponies dying by the border who cross it. I want to stop it and by doing that, I was going to use this potion to get over. Princess Celestia never lets me go away really far away from Ponyville. She says that I'm one of the bearers of Harmony and I couldn't be harmed or captured. I was going to go with my friends, but.. after I saw what you did for me.." Twilight lowered her head down to breathe, though Silent Wind saw that she had one hoof to her chest. Silent Wind quickly raised an eyebrow in wonder. "...I was wondering if you wanted to come with us." Twilight wondered. Silent Wind wondered about this. He still had goals of his own, but he remembered the promise he made to Princess Celestia and he knew that if he disobeyed his promise, he would most likely get showered by a yellow blast of energy and get his flank handed to him. He smiled and nodded. "Sure. I might as well, I've got nothing else to do other than lay around here." Silent Wind replied. Twilight grinned large enough to be accompanied by a squeaking from a foal's toy. Twilight took her saddlebag with a magical hold once again and prepared to make the potion downstairs. Before she could go down, Silent Wind stopped her by putting a foreleg in her way. "Hey, I need to talk to you about a few things first." Silent Wind said. Twilight agreed to listen what he had to say by putting down her saddlebag, now listening to the Silentblade in front of her. "Hm? What is it? I'm in a bit of hurry." Twilight said, impatiently. Silent Wind remembered what Princess Celestia said, she knew that Twilight would allow him to be her guardian but to be sure, he just asked. Twilight rotated her head a bit to her left and fixating her glasses, wondering what Silent Wind wanted to say. "The talk with Princess Celestia. She wants me to be your.. guardian. If you want, of course." Silent Wind said. Twilight had a wondering expression and putted a hoof on her chin. A moment later, she lowered her hoof and walked downstairs with her saddlebag. "Give me a moment to think, please.. until I'm done with the potion, you can go around Ponyville. I'll let you know when I'm done." Twilight said while still walking downstairs. Silent Wind sighed, looking down. He felt that Twilight would probably refuse on that request but he didn't let that get to his mind too much. He wondered what to do until Twilight was done. He decided that it would be best just to stay by Twilight until she was done. Silent Wind wondered what to do for the time as Twilight began to make the potion on her home table near the kitchen. He decided that he would just take a check on his things and try to take a shower. He smelled very odd and sooner or later, it would stench all around him like an odor. But, why would he take a shower? He wasn't going to smell good for anypony. He sighed as threw himself on top of Twilight's bed. He quickly closed his eyes, wanting to take a nap. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As a daily thing, the Mane Six usually came to Sugarcube Corner to talk with each other. They did do those 'things' but, the only thing was that Twilight didn't come as much anymore. As five of the Mane Six sat around the tables of Sugarcube Corner, they began to talk about the odd stranger that came into Ponyville just yesterday. Whom was Silent Wind, a Silentblade. But none of Twilight's friends knew that. Rainbow Dash was most interested in the stallion in a wondering way, of course. She was the first to bring up about Silent Wind. "Hey, girls! Whaddya think about this stallion who mysteriously came into Ponyville." Rainbow Dash questioned, waving her hands to produce sarcastic horror. "Ah dunno, Rainbow. It's justa' stallion. It ain't anythin' special." Applejack admitted. Pinkie Pie jumped out from under the table with her forelegs high up in the air. "He was a creepy weirdy! Is that a word?" Pinkie Pie said, going off topic and turning her head left and right to her friends. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at Pinkie Pie's weirdness. Fluttershy still felt very apologetic even though she had already said sorry, seeing that one of her defensive animals had nearly mauled him. Rarity who had Spike by her side, wondered about one thing, Twilight and.. "him" was the biggest thing on her mind. Her heart fluttered at the idea of both of them being embraced in each other. Rarity felt a bit ashamed for thinking about that. But she couldn't help it, she was always a soft one for romance. She was soon shot of her trance as Rainbow Dash flew up into her face, wanting to get an answer from her to reply to her question that Rarity didn't hear. "Rarity?! Did you hear me?" Rainbow Dash hollered, frightening Rarity in the process. Rarity had letted her guard down for a moment and because of that, she nearly had a heart attack. "M-My mind was not in the right place. My apologies, what was that, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity asked. Rainbow Dash sighed, not wanting to say it again but since Rarity was her friend, she decided that it would be fine to say it again even though Rainbow Dash knew that Rarity was dozing off into another world. "I said.. don't ya think that this stranger fella with Twilight is.. a bit funny?" Rainbow Dash asked as the others looked at them. Rarity felt rather rude to say that the stallion who she just kicked back was odd in a way. He seemed fine. In a way, of course. "I do not think there is anything ominous with him. But, I must say, he is rather rude to come into my boutique and mistakingly attack Spike! But.. I do say, I am rather amused how he said that he had defeated that 'bug' kind. And I ponder how he did it.." Rarity said, rubbing Spike's spines. Rainbow Dash laughed, she didn't particularly think that he could've done it. "Hah! I think Twilight beated those things to a pulp even before he could come to the 'rescue'!" Rainbow Dash claimed. Applejack wasn't sure on that. She was smart enough to know that wasn't possible at all. Twilight had already been beaten badly, showing that what she had encountered, wasn't a normal changeling at all. "Ah'm not sure, Rainbow. When Twilight came back, she was lookin' as bad as a rotten apple." Applejack objected. Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and made a small 'hmph' as she was hovering in the air. Fluttershy hoped that Silent Wind wasn't still mad at her. At that moment, Spike remembered that it was about time to go back to Twilight to help her with chores. Spike excused himself and exited Sugarcube Corner. "So, what do we do now?" Rainbow Dash said, impatiently. Pinkie Pie made a frowning expression, unable to think what to do. Applejack knew what to exactly do. Out of everypony in the Mane SIx, she was obviously the most wisest and dependable. "Ah say that we go to Twi's place and check on 'er. I bet she's on her hooves now." Applejack walked out of Sugarcube Corner and the rest of the Mane Six followed. Fluttershy was at the end, she felt that Silent Wind was still a bit upset at her for putting him in that near-death experience. "Oh..! I hope he's not mad..! He's still not mad at me, is he..?!" Fluttershy blurted out in fear as she followed the others to Twilight's library. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In an underground of the Changeling main hive spire below beneath the rigid ground of the badlands, one of Chrysalis' Changeling princes, Mortis was walking down a green path to the main hive room where his queen laid apon her throne, about to inform her of the death of Ignis. Worst, Ignis was a very valuable servant meaning that for sure, Queen Chrysalis would be infuriated with the information. As he walked the path, there were dozens of large, green eggs. Almost the whole spire was practically a spawnpool for different kinds of the twisted Changelings, all made from dead bodies from normal ponies including Royal guards, about to serve a new leader. Influenced by the great love that was taken from all of Equestria and including Queen Chrysalis' loving malice. Though it came with a sacrifice, depending on what disgusting ability they had, they were usually just left with a pair of wings or just a horn, losing the ability to have both and worst of all, losing the ability to mimic into other ponies. But to Chrysalis, it was worth a sacrifice to gain mutating powers. As he opened the burrowed gate, leading to the made throne of Queen Chrysalis who was sitting upon her throne, two Changelings sitting down each by her side including two other Changeling Princes accompanying her, the other was commanding the battling Changelings above them, repelling Shining Armor's forces. As Mortis was close enough to her throne, he happily bowed in front of his superior as he was about to inform Queen Chrysalis of what he had saw. Ignis' ashes. "I have rather... surprising news. Ignis has been killed. I had found his ashes, indicating that he was killed by.. somepony. Was it the mare he was told to go after?" Mortis said. Chrysalis closed her eyes in thought, putting her hooves together. The two changeling princes turned their heads toward Mortis. Surprised of what they had heard. "Really..? He was quite a hothead to do such things. That may have been his demise. What a waste.." Obitus snarled. The other prince, Kreel was rather quiet on such a thing as he was very quiet and barely talked. For Chrysalis, it was rather pleasant to have a silent Changeling as it made things more calmer and quiet. Due to her great magical powers, Chrysalis was able to feel what Ignis' had felt during his battle. Not his physical feelings, but what he felt mentally. She had already felt it during the battle before Ignis died and felt.. rather interested in the one who killed Ignis, for Ignis was a very powerful Changeling but somehow, was killed very easily. Interested, Chrysalis laughed, gaining the attention of three of her princes. "Ah.. Ignis was a fine Changeling, but I no longer care.. for I now seek the one who killed him. Twilight Sparkle was not the one who defeated him and there is no need for her either.. but.. a kind of pony I thought that we had taken care of. Several months ago.." Queen Chrysalis stood up from her throne, excitement was surging through her as she had felt what the killer of Ignis was like. Somepony strong. Very strong and spirited in her mind. "And who is that?" Mortis asked as Chrysalis walked past him. Chrysalis stopped at the burrowed gate, leaving her throne and moving somewhere else to make plans. She made long, dark giggles as she turned her head, looking back. "Why, a Silentblade, of course. A stallion.. who can be very useful.. I will be going to make plans. I'm quite intrigued to see this.. Silentblade. Personally.." Queen Chrysalis said as she left. The rest felt rather interested also, they were all sure they had killed all Silentblades, wiping them off the map. But it seems that there was one more left. One that had a silent hatred in his heart against Changelings. > Dangerous and Troubled Roads > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Eight: Dangerous and Troubled Roads Silent Wind woke up to the noise of scraping on the ground with a broom and faint mare voices. He slowly opened his eyes and stood up with his hoof to his forehead, still slightly tired from his nap. Spike soon stopped cleaning as he walked up to him, giving him orders from Twilight. Silent Wind turned his head towards Spike, giving the drake a questioning look. "What do you want?" Silent Wind asked. Spike was slightly hesitant to talk after what had happened with him and the Silentblade, but he knew that he had to still say it under Twilight's order. "Uh, Twilight wants you to go downstairs. I would've woken you up, but uh.. I was cleanin' here." Spike said as he went back to cleaning around the bedroom floors and organizing the books in the shelves. Silent Wind flew out of the bed and below the kitchen ground below. Once he was calm and normally on the ground, he walked downstairs to check on what were Twilight and the 'gang' were doing. As he got downstairs, they were all gathered around the door, preparing the leave out. Silent Wind didn't know that they were leaving somewhere now. He quickly trotted to them, wanting answers. "I didn't know you were all going now. Where are you all going?" Silent Wind asked. Twilight turning towards him and walking forward. Pinkie Pie had quite a cheerful face, despite knowing the conflicts. "Oh! You were sleeping because your head was sleepy?! I have a lot of sleep too!" Pinkie Pie said before slumping down on the ground, falling asleep. Twilight turned her head towards Pinkie Pie who was snoring on the ground. Her other friends checked on her , even though they saw that it was just her silliness faking a sleeping Pinkie Pie. Twilight turned her head back to Silent Wind. "We were waiting for you. I wish you didn't sleep too long, it's not rather healthy to sleep in too much." Twilight said. Silent Wind sighed and tilted his head back as he rubbed his leather bracers, checking if they were tight enough. His clothing were fine, despite being a bit dusty and dirty. "Yeah, thanks for the 'health' lectures, but you didn't ask my question." Silent Wind reminded. Twilight had gotten off-topic and apologized for not answering. She then started off where she had gone off-topic. Twilight got a bit closer to the Silentblade as she wanted to whisper, not wanting her friends to feel a bit odd by hearing what Twilight said. "I thought I told you... didn't I say that we were going to the Everfree Forest to check something?" Twilight whispered. Silent Wind was a bit uncomfortable being a bit too close by Twilight. But, he replied to her with his whisper. "Well, sorry. I forgot about that.. I'm going to come along since we don't even know if it'll be dangerous. After all, I swore that I'd protect you." Silent Wind whispered. Twilight knew that there would be danger ahead since she knew that Changelings were spread throughout Equestria. But, she didn't want Silent Wind to feel uneasy by saying that danger was assured so she just nodded. "O-Okay.. come on, my friends are waiting.." Twilight stuttered as she pulled back from Silent Wind's face. Silent Wind eyes narrowed as he swore he saw a pink blush from Twilight's face but a moment later, he shrugged it off. Twilight who didn't notice her blush, had to admit that it was slightly warming to know she had somepony to protect her. "Hey! Let's go already!" Rainbow Dash hurried. Twilight quickly trotted as she opened the door with a magical pull and trotted out of the library. Her friends followed her out the moment she trotted out. Pinkie Pie woke up spontaneously and hopped out of the library. Silent Wind walked out the last. As Silent Wind got outside, he saw that it was around the afternoon and near sunset. The sky looked like it was setting down for nighttime. He quickly caught up with the others by flying towards them. He didn't want to waste energy just galloping to them. Once he caught up with the others, they all left Ponyville and into the Everfree Forest, finding out the things that were killing many ponies within the Everfree Forest. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Princess Celestia looked over at the skies of Equestria, she could see that it was near sunset and frowned at the distant, green skies far down in the south. Princess Luna opened her door to her room and had a concerned look for her sister. Usually she was rather blank-faced and had courage in her heart. But this time, it felt much more different. She approached her sister, making Princess Celestia turn her head to her left to see her younger sibling. "Is something wrong, my sister?" Princess Luna asked. Princess Celestia lowered her head and looked back at the horizon of the clouds. "I have been thinking for several moments now, I wonder how Shining Armor is fairing over in the badlands. Surely, the Changelings have been rough on them for months now..." Princess Celestia said. Despite having the utmost faith in Shining Armor, she knew that Shining Armor wouldn't last at the badlands, not without the Elements of Harmony. He would most likely be slain if not given reinforcements. This gave Princess Cadance a dark fear that she would not see in reality but for Princess Celestia knew that it would be devastating to lose the Captain of the Royal Guard. Despite of the dark hour, Princess Luna putted a hoof on her shoulder, giving her slight hope. "Do not fret, sister, I am sure Shining Armor is doing his best to hold them for several months. What we must have in such a dark time, is hope. Isn't that what mother and father taught us?" Princess Luna said with a smile. Princess Celestia was quite surprised by her sister's words, she was usually the one telling Princess Luna things, but this time, it seemed like the roles were changed. Nonetheless, she smiled at her sister and gave her a hug. Princess Luna hugged back. "Of course, of course. We swear that we will fight to our last breath, to protect the Elements of Harmony." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Silent Wind walked along with the Mane Six as they passed by the dark, atmosphere of the Everfree Forest. To Silent Wind, the Everfree Forest of the world he was in now was now more grim than the Everfree Forest of his world. He figured that it must've been the Changeling Influence that caused the once-green forest to slowly die out. Despite of the dark environment, Pinkie Pie stood happy and cheerful as she jumped through each vine to another vine. Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, with her forelegs crossed. Applejack looked for anything of the unusual and never left her eye from her rope around her waist, preparing to immobilize any that resembled as hostile. Twilight turned her head left and right, being very cautious. Silent Wind wondered what was going through her head and sped up a bit to catch up to her. He was concerned about their surroundings and told Twilight about his concern. "Twilight, it's getting very odd around here. I feel like something is watching us." Silent Wind said. Twilight looked around, shifting her eyes left and right. "There's nothing out of the ordinary. Come on, stop being paranoid and lets keep moving." Twilight replied. Silent Wind shook his head as Twilight turned her head back in front of her. The rest of the Mane six went past him as he slowed down. Silent Wind felt something very ominous behind him, but he could see anything, the path was quite dark. He swore he heard a hissing sound and raised his left hoof, about to take out his weapons. Before he could, he was knock out of his trance by a holler. "Hey! Dozer, we're moving! Get your rump over here!" Rainbow Dash hollered. Silent Wind's head turned to the echo of the sound of Rainbow Dash calling and hovered quickly to the others. In the darkness, a black, sharp claw appeared from within the nearby trees. Even more hissing started as the tall figure jumped up and into the high branches of each tree. For at least an hour, Twilight and her group of friends including one Silentblade walked far from Ponyville. As they finally got to the border that separated Southern Equestria and Northern Equestria, they saw that there was a bridge. It looked old, very old. It's wood looked like it could break any moment. But the most that they saw first, was the five downed Royal Guards near the bridge. Fluttershy screamed in fear and buried her head. The others gasped. Twilight ran towards the soldiers, hoping that they were still alive. Twilight checked and so did Silent Wind. They both shook their heads as all of them were checked. "Nothing. They're dead.." Silent Wind said, sadly. Twilight and her other friends lowered their heads, silently mourning of their deaths. Silent Wind noticed something.. odd. All the death blows he saw were mostly claw marks to the neck and bite marks. Whatever the monster was, it was surely no normal Changeling. Detailing from the wounds, all of them were taken down by a single target as they were patrolling the bridge. He quickly found out that all there was some kind of stalking monster hiding within the forest. As he was making his hypothesis. He quickly turned his head to Twilight and her friends, he heard a hissing sound again and it was near Twilight and her friends. "Twilight! Get your friends away from the forests! There's something out there!!" Silent Wind yelled. Twilight and her friends shook at his words and all the sudden, a dark figure came out from the forests, pushing away Twilight's friends and jumping on top of her. Twilight froze in fear as she look at the horrific sight. It was some special species of a Changeling. It looked exactly normal only that it had more narrower eyes of blue, two large mandibles coming from the back of it's shoulders, and instead of hooves, it had claws. Very sharp claws. And it was three times her size, it's bladed tail stood still, not one motion. The monster grabbed her neck with it's left hand, holding her down. Silent Wind flew at it as it raised it's right claws, about to slash on the Lavender mare upon it. Silent Wind tackled it against a nearby tree and punched it with a left hook. But it retaliated with it's strong size and pushed the Silentblade back and he fell on the bridge. The Changeling jumped such a great distance that it surprised Silent Wind. Silent Wind grunted as he got up from his fall. "That's a new trick..." Silent Wind mumbled as he remembered the jump the Changeling did. Rainbow Dash and Applejack stood up and galloped behind the Changeling and supporting Silent Wind. The others were dazed, as they hitted several objects on their fall. Fluttershy was too frightened to do anything and Twilight was coughing from the stress on her throat. "You just messed with the messed with the wrong pony, pal!" Rainbow Dash yelled, taking flight and bumping her hooves together. Applejack grabbed her rope with her right hoof and gritted her teeth. "Ya ain't gunna hurt mah friends! Ah'l buck ya up!" Applejack promised. The Changeling looked behind him and in front of him, looking at the Silentblade who now had Black and purple Silentblade eyes. He had eyes of killer intent. But so did the Changeling. "Let's do this." Silent Wind said, not leaving eye contact with the large Changeling before him. He touched his right upper arm and a small chain connect to a sickle fell out of Silent Wind's right long-coat sleeve and he threw it, grabbing the sickle with his mouth. The Changeling turned it's head back and forth, snickering and hissing in excitement to kill the ponies upon him. It stood on two and it's mandibles twitched. He made a loud hissing sound, intimidating the three brave ponies. Rainbow Dash prepared to charge at it, Applejack threw her lasso and grabbed it with her mouth. Silent Wind stood in a prowling stance, not leaving his gaze on the monster.