//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14 
// Story: After Discord 
// by Faindragon 
//------------------------------//

But it is a well known fact.
That when things get serious.
When everything goes wrong.
Will your friends show their true self.
But have faith in your friends.
They will trust you to do what is right.
So do not fear your friends.

Fear yourself.


*^*


“We are NOT here to give them a show! I mean... I am NOT here to give them a show. GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”
“You are so boring... these ponies look like they should need a good laugh.”
“I am here to escape my death, what are you doing here?”
“We are here to look over us.”
“That did not even make any sense.”
“It did, we are just blind to our surroundings.”
“You might be, I am not!”
“Then tell me, how will you escape from here? There is no plain way, you can only run into the crowd, putting them all in danger.”

I looked around and realized that the voice inside of me was correct. Ponies stood every where on the cobblestones of the marketplace. Citizens of Trotholm... I could not hurt any of them in my escape. That would make me the criminal they feared. 

No, I had to escape without hurting anypony at all.
But how?

“We could use our wings? We are a pegasus after all...”
“If you have not noticed so do I not have any wings! They were ripped of me years ago for a crime I did not commit.”
“What if we say that we can give you your wings back, if so only for a short time.”
“I would say that that is insane and that I start to go insane for even listening to you!”
“Suit yourself then, I gave you an option.” the voice laughed. “We will have fun in seeing how you get out of here.”
“GET OUT!”

I looked at Lightheart. He looked straight forward, straight at the gallows.
Then he started to walk. I fell in just behind him, the chains dragging on the cobblestone. I was afraid that they would fall of.

Ponies around me spat at me, I heard shouts from the crowd.
“Hang the traitor!”
“Cleanse the filth from Trotholm!”
“This will not give me my husband back but I will enjoy watching you hang!”

“It seems like we will give them some kind of show anyway.” the voice said with a giggle. “I still think we balancing a ball would be a great show towards this... gallows.”

I did not even care to silence the voice anymore. The town loathed me.
No, I could not blame the city for that! They did not see what was happening around them! They lived in an illusion!

I looked at the gallows, saw the rope noose that I was supposed to hang from sway in the light wind that rushed past me. I could only see one way out of here where I would not risk hurting anypony. Or actually two.

The castle, and the gallows.

But I would not let myself get hanged! For the good sake of Trotholm would I not allow it!
“Selfish are we? Are we to put all these ponies in danger just because we value our own life more than theirs?”
“I do not value my life higher than theirs!”
“And yet we refuse to die for them.”
“I can not do anything for them dead!”
“Have they asked for our help? Or are we here just for our own selfish way? That we have ‘seen’ something that they have not?”
“They do not know anything, they have not seen what I have seen! You heard Corelight, the corruption exist here!”
“But it works do it not? Do we have to destroy something that works, something that does no harm anypony in Trotholm? Are we permitted to bring pain and sorrow to Trotholm only because we see what is happening as wrong?”
“You have not seen the corruption in this city! Ponies die every day from the corruption!”
“And we are the one to stop this? The hero?”
“I am not a hero! I do what has to be done!”
“And that is?”
“Cleanse this city from the filth.”
“Kill everypony that we see as corrupt?”
“Yes.”
“But what if they are not corrupt?”
“How do you mean.”
“We are the ones corrupted here.”

The voice was gone with a laugh, leaving me staring into the distance.

The reality came back like the blow from a hammer. We were nearly at the gallows. And the only escape route was towards the castle!

But the way there was clear, no guards patrolled there. It were actually nearly no guards at the market.

Something was wrong, but what?

I looked at Lightheart. He would sacrifice everything if something went wrong here.

And there I saw it.

In the crowd behind Lightheart was something sticking out. Small isles of iron. The helmets of guards.

Ten of them... twenty of them... a hundred of them! 

How could I have missed it at first? It was so clear now. They had placed guards to catch me if I tried to run for it towards the crowds, the only sane escape route.

I smiled for myself. But they would not be able to interfere. I had already decided not to run towards the crowd. I was going to run towards the castle, and it were no guards there that I could see. 

The headmaster was the one that should hang me. Where was he? Of course would that foal not want to get close to me before the noose was already around my neck and a bag was over my head. He would probably give a short speech and then draw in the lever that would make a trapdoor open beneath me, causing me to plung to my death.

I found myself smiling lightly once again and forced the smile away. I was still too look defeated or they might figure out that something was not right. We where not even ten steps from the gallows, and the castle was less than fifty steps in the other direction. 

The crowd had gone silent, every eye on me. I could feel their eyes looking at me, eyes filled of hatred and anger, but also full of relief.

The wanted criminal would be hang and Trotholm was to be free from the filth that was him.

Or so they thought. 

I quickly unsheathed my blades and violently shook the chains and collars of. They landed with a loud rattling on the cobblestone.

I spun around and buried one of the blades deep in Lightheart. It was not a blow that was fatal, heck it did not even tore a muscle! It was a pretended blow. Lightheart cried out in pain.

I saw the red, life giving liquid follow my blade as I drew it out from Lighthearts body. The droplets landed on the cobblestone, soaked them with the blood of the innocent. I spun around, towards the gallows and the castle, my legs working as fast as they could.

The energy soared through my body, my veins pumped burning lava into my legs, making them work faster than ever before. 

The guards had started to push themselves out of the crowds, most of them running towards me. I saw some of them running towards the point where Lightheart lay bleeding. He would at least be okay. 

My hooves hammered against the cobblestone as I ran under the gallows, making my way towards the castle. Celestia’s last grace lighted my path.

“How many ponies have we wounded or killed by this? How many was wounded or killed by the guards when they pushed their way through the crowd? Pushed out to get to us.” the voice said with a grim laugh.