Shisno Chronicles: Friendship is Magic

by nightelf37

(NOT) Family Appreciation Day

Author's Note:

I decided not to do this episode because it's centered on the Apple family. That's all I'm gonna say.

And here's a piece of trivia: Moonbow Peek's name was derived from antonyms for the words that make the name Rainbow Dash. Peek, as a bit of a stretch, is a synonym of creep, which is to move slowly. A moonbow is a rainbow…at night, I kid you not.

This chapter is Rated T for constant mention of death, killing, murder, and so on. If you're not qualified to read such things, please move on to the next chapter. I Pinkie Swear you you're not missing anything. Much.

The long letter and the nightmare Twilight will be 'rescued' from is derived from a Teen-rated fic titled "Downfall". This story belongs to BronyWriter not me. Go check him out. His stories are deep and are very good reads. There's "One Word", where Cheerilee has a talk with Diamond Tiara, "Princess Celestia Gets Mugged", where… exactly that happens, "Snowfall", where Celestia declares a snowball fight, "Fears and Consequences", which follows the episode Too Many Pinkie Pies and reflects on what Pinkie's done, "Celestia and Luna Drive a Car", which should be self-explanatory, "Fluttershy and Celestia Play Chess", which is also self-explanatory, and other tales, particularly The Non-Bronyverse, and "The Secret Life of Rarity", where she's a serial killer. Trust me, he's a better writer than I ever will be, especially since the last two have pages in TV Tropes whereas I don't even have a reference in the Fanfic Recommendations page, since self-recommendations are not allowed.

I own only the following: My originally designed OCs, and anything that doesn't happen in the show proper, like this whole chapter.

Special 10: The Issue of Killing

Some time after the events of "Family Appreciation Day", while Spike and Twilight Sparkle were testing a spell from the latter, Chronicle was in the Books and Branches Library, in charge of the place while they were gone. As he looked for more spell books in which he can learn, he noticed something as he stood in the second room whose outside wall was the same as the one 'wall' his training range was at.

On a table was a tray meant for Twilight's 'reserve' friendship reports when they were still being sent weekly. Given the new 'system', this was no longer needed. So it was peculiar that there would be a rolled-up letter in it. Curious, he 'lifted' the scroll and unfurled it. But what he saw rocked him to the core.

"Dear Princess Celestia,

Have you…have you ever wondered what it is like to kill another pony? Wow, right there that means that I can never send any of these letters but, I dunno, I just feel like writing my thoughts out like this. I suppose it is my scientific and analytical mind that brought this on. I have to keep my thoughts on this matter organized and, well; I have always felt the most organized when I am writing to you about what I am feeling.

Well, you're probably wondering what brought this on. It was nothing special really; it all began when I was scanning the library shelves for something to read. I came across this book called The Anthology of Evil: Equestria's Most Notorious Killers. Well, I had never read a book like that before and seeing as how I am a student of learning itself, I took it off the shelf at once. What I read…disturbed me at the same time that it fascinated me. I think the description of The Canterlot Killer's murder of the family of four disturbed me the most. I mean, what drives a pony to do something like that!?

Well…that is exactly what I'm asking myself these days. What goes through a pony's mind that makes them want to kill another living being? Why do they feel the need to tear the life away from an innocent pony? What goes through their minds as they watch their victims take their final breath, knowing that they are the reason behind it? I don't know why, but it's torturing me, not knowing the answers to any of those questions. Normally I'd just look it up in the book, but none of the stories had any interviews with the killers themselves. They were all executed and the interviews they had with you before their executions aren't public records. I'd ask you for them but I don't think you'd be very keen on letting me read them without a really good reason. I don't think you'd ever let anypony read them which is unfortunate. I want to know why.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle"

Chronicle was shaken at the fact that his charge, Twilight Sparkle, was wondering what it means to kill, and did not decide to ask him, who has made threats of it in earshot, who has talked about willing to do so when necessary, who is not afraid to imply it straight up, and openly swears sometimes (though not in earshot of children). Even if he would've refused, at least she would've tried. Then again, everypony has their secrets, him especially.

But this letter… who knows what Twilight is thinking when she wrote it? To what end will she go to quench her curiosity? Will this be a subject she can wisely turn away from without it bugging her for the rest of her life? Or not? This may be a case of paranoia, but Chronicle cannot let this happen. He will not let any of his friends have any sort of want for inducing death; he doesn't like it either, even though he sometimes partakes in it.

And then, as fate would have it, just as he turned to the door, Twilight and Spike have returned and entered the room he was in…and seeing him with the letter. Immediately, he spoke. "Spike, leave the room. There's something I need to talk to Twilight about. Alone." Coupled with the serious glare he was giving, the dragonling immediately did as he asked, and also closed the door behind Twilight, leaving her alone with her bodyguard.

"Chronicle," she began. "Is that letter…" The words left her mouth as he 'shoved' it into her face.

"You want to know what it's like to end another's life?" he began. "Let's meet in the dreamscape. Yours. So please teach me that spell you used to get in mine."

"Why can't we meet in yours?" Twilight asked as she 'took' the letter and walked over to him.

"In the event you're suffering a nightmare, I can rescue you from it. Unless Princess Luna is teaching you something that way, in which case that'll depend. I'll be calling in someone to help."

"You mean somepony."

"You're assuming the help I'm calling is a pony. That's rather…discriminatory, if you ask me."

"Why is that such a big issue for you? Why do you use the -pony suffix only when you're explicitly referring to ponies?"

"You wanna know why I do that?" Chronicle 'snatched' the letter and put it back in the tray where he found it. "Because back when I thought the two words were essentially the same, which it grammatically isn't, somepony died." Twilight gasped in shock. "And at hindsight, I could've saved her with just one different word. But I didn't, all because of that mistake."

This got her curious. "How?"

"Back when it happened, I was a bit more lenient in my bodyguarding job than I am now. I had quite a good reputation, so I was confident in protecting my next charge, who I will not name. That confidence cracked when I realized she was a target for a lot of assassins, though none of them were better than my younger brother. Back then, I didn't ask questions so long as the pay and the charges were good, in terms of bits for the former and in terms of morality for the latter.

"The contract was for five days, and every night I had to stand guard in her room (and was trusted not to turn on or…ravage her myself) and thwart assassins from doing what they do. And let me tell you that she had a lot of them after her. Not just one or two per night. Sometimes, they even worked in tandem; after all, their mission was the same, and whoever hired them, no idea how many, apparently benefitted from her death. It was strange; she was the nicest pony I ever met before Fluttershy, and rich too, such individuals being—pardon the pun—rarities. Maybe there was some secret she had, something she knew, something special about her, something someone wanted to stop by ending her life. But I didn't care about any of that; all I was tasked on is protection of the charge, and that's it.

"In any case, I quickly grew weary of the constant attacks and was losing sleep from constant vigilance. I didn't learn the magical clone spell at the time. Incidentally, in the city she resided in, there was a wishing well, or fountain, I'm not sure which. There, it was said that so long as the wish you made there wasn't for yourself and wasn't malevolent, it would come true. Silly, I know, but it was reputable for its success. Tired as I was, on the fourth day of my contract, I made a wish that, for at least two days, nopony would come after her to take her life. That night, for the first few hours, there were no attacks. Relieved that the wish worked, I made the mistake of catching a moment of reprieve. The next thing I knew, she had taken a knife to the head. And it shocked me long enough for the perpetrators to get away."

Twilight took his momentary pause to ask, "How? If the wishing thing really worked, how did it fail for you?"

"Isn't it obvious? Try to recall the wish I made. Think of the loophole in it that would result in her death without violating the wish."

It took her a long while to figure out the answer. "The successful killer wasn't a pony, was it?"

"That's right. The one who did the deed was a griffon, with a zebra cohort. And that was my first failure as a freelance bodyguard. As I drowned my sorrows in one jumbo bottle of gin (and no more), I blamed myself for my failure. Not only from my lapse of vigilance, but from the wording of my wish. If I had been more precise, she wouldn't have died. ████, maybe the wish was why I couldn't protect her.

"And that's why ever since, I make sure my wording is precise on anything, because I'm well-aware that loopholes can be very dangerous when exploited. I don't want to make a mistake like that ever again, and it's very easy to, so I watch what I say. Anyway… back to the dream spell. Could you please teach me, or at least provide the book?"

And with that, Twilight was thrown in for another loop; the fact that Chronicle is capable of changing subjects of different tones this quickly. Still, he wanted to help her, and is willing to answer her question.

So why not?

C—TS—S—C—TS—S—C—TS—S—C—TS—S

Later that night, in the dreamscape…

"You said Twilight would be here to fetch us, brother."

Chronicle and Blue Diary were waiting for the former's Twilight Sparkle to enter the dreamscape, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Yeah, that's odd. I'd better check on her. I promised we'd meet her if she couldn't meet us." With that, the blue unicorn cast a complex spell which he would not be able to do in the waking world, but can in the dreamscape since it was specifically designed for that. Only unicorns with an greater amount of magic than normal can use the spell; luckily, he was one of those.

A sort-of-temporal hole opened in front of the two, which led to Twilight (Prime)'s dreamscape (which was what she should be doing on her end), which currently took the form of the library basement with all the "mad scientist" stuff. and they heard the sound of crying. The unicorn identified it immediately, while the pegasus needed a second to do so, never having heard the voice cry before.

"Pinkie Pie!" they gasped, one in concern and one in mild confusion. Immediately, they crossed the portal, which was situated at where the doorway to the basement would usually be. Upon turning to the center, they both gasped again, this time in shock.

The pink earth pony was strapped to the table, her hair flat, her coat a shade darker, and her left hind leg bleeding. And overlooking her was none other than Twilight, who was 'holding' a bloody knife. But the bookworm didn't stop there. She followed up by cutting off Dream Pinkie's left ear and right cutie mark with the knife.

"Twilight," Dream Pinkie was saying. "Why? I thought you were my friend! I thought you liked my parties!"

"I love your parties and I love you as a friend," Dreamer Twilight responded. "But this is for science, Pinkie Pie. Doesn't that make you happy, knowing that you are a part of something larger than yourself?"

He knew what would happen next if he didn't intervene, so he shot the knife away with a magic blast. This caught Dreamer Twilight's attention as she turned to face him and his brother. At the sight of their furious faces, she froze in place. "What the ████ are you doing?!" he shouted.

"Science, of course."

Uh oh. She's still dreaming. "At the cost of innocent lives?! At the cost of a friend, and likely your friendship with the rest?! At the cost of Princess Celestia's respect?!" This statement seemed to strike a nerve and the dreamscape started to shake. "Is this sort of science all worth that?! Ethics still have to be followed! We haven't reached a threshold where what you're doing is necessary!"

"Those who staunchly put their thirst for knowledge over having good relations with others and do not inhibit themselves from doing what society deems as immoral…" Blue added in as he put a hoof to his magic pearl amulet and pointed his other hoof at Dreamer Twilight. Out of it came a red aura that usually manifests from his two swords, and extended straight toward her (while he could do the same with using one of his swords, that could sometimes mess with his aim due to its weight). The red aura grabbed her by the neck, away from Dream Pinkie, and lifted her up.

"Wait! What are you doing?!" Blue's brother suddenly asked. He didn't intend to do this, but… Hold on. What was Chronicle's plan to stop a kill-for-science dream version of Twilight? Would simple talking work? This still was the Twilight Sparkle he's lived with for a long time, and he and his brother were just encountering an alternate subconsciousness form of his friend deep inside of her mind. If this was reality, it would break his heart, even as he put a stop to her, but this wasn't reality.

"I'm going to wake her up," the white pony whispered. "She has to believe that killing her friend for science is a terrible idea. That consequences will come in the form of possible vigilantes like us. Well, you, but that's beyond the point. You once said you have a magic clone awake in the night. You do have one now, right?"

"Uh, every single night."

The moment those words left his mouth, Blue had leaped into action, let his hoof on the amulet go and subsequently summon his sword, the one on his left named Justice, to slice at Dreamer Twilight's neck as she fell. The second it reached a point where it would've doomed her (as the head can surprisingly still survive withouth the body for a time before expiring, no joke), the dreamscape began to fall apart and Blue immediately joined his brother out of the portal back to his dreamscape.

The moment the two were out, the portal collapsed as the other dreamscape cease to be upon its owner's waking up, and they collapsed on top of each other.

"Let's not do that again," the unicorn finally said. "I don't think dreamscape eviction is at all fun."

C—TS—BD—C—TS—BD—C—TS—BD—C—TS—BD

As a result of that intrusion, Twilight awoke in a cold sweat, screaming as she got up. This moderately startled the Chronicle clone on standby, but not the deep-sleeping Spike, whose mumblings implied he was either dreaming of work with his pretty-much surrogate parent, swimming in a treasure trove, or a date with his quite obvious crush, nopony cared right now.

"I'm assuming you had a nightmare, huh?" stated the magic-made copy.

"Not… really…" Twilight confessed as she rubbed her head. "Just… weird…"

"Was I in it?"

"Uhh… yeah… Your brother… your younger brother… he was there, too. Don't know why I dreamt of him."

"Just go back to sleep, and enter 'my' dreamscape. He'll explain everything."

"Oh, right." And with that, despite how fitful she was feeling about sleeping again so soon, she did as instructed, performing the dream-entering spell she used once before to infiltrate Chronicle's dreamscape while he was doing some activity with his relatives.

Once she was asleep again, the clone resumed watch, not requiring sleep, which his original was providing.

C—TS—C—TS—C—TS—C—TS—C—TS—C—TS

Back inside Chronicle's dreamscape, he and Blue Diary were just cleaning themselves up, so to speak, before Twilight Sparkle appeared.

"Twilight, you're here," the unicorn stallion greeted, successfully hiding the traumatic incident he had just witnessed. Blue's nerves were tougher given his job and thus was successful in hiding it as well.

"Chronicle!" she greeted back. "So you brought Blue Diary along?"

"Nice to meet you again," nodded the pegasus. "By the way, I believe your plan for my world's Twilight worked pretty well."

"Thank you." The sole mare in the dreamscape then turned to her bodyguard. "So, you said you'd help me find out what it's like to end another's life."

"Wait." He turned to Chronicle. "You were gonna explain that?!"

"I told you I found an unsent letter of her pondering on the issue!"

"Oh, right. And you said to me that your Twilight started getting curious when she read a book about killers."

"Yes, and since we have killed without staining our moral compass (much), I thought we'd be the ideal interviewees."

"And partly because I'm an assassin," Blue finished.

"That and Dad's too busy, so's Mom, our sis is too much like me to make a good argument on this matter, and our big bro's a pacifist."

"Right." The pegasus turned to the other unicorn. "So, Twilight. You want to know what it's like to end another's life? More precisely, the life of a sentient being like you and me? Well…" He took a moment to pause for breath, also urging his brother to 'do the other thing'. "While we certainly know more than the average pony, we're not completely knowledgeable on the subject, but we will try and cover as much as we can.

"The first thing to answer is 'why kill?'. Well, depending on the circumstances, it could be an act of mercy, or it could be a matter of sacrificing for the greater good. Both non-evil reasons, but can be easily misguided. Other reasons why one would kill would be that maybe the victim deserves it (justifiability irrelevant), or they saw something that shouldn't be seen and keeping mum isn't enough or is too much effort compared to killing, or they just happen to be in the way, or a classical case of revenge (who they kill is irrelevant), or an intense illogical hatred of all things of a certain category (which it is is, again, irrelevant), or a pattern in their minds they must follow, or it somehow extends their own lifespan (method also irrelevant), or it's just part of their job, or—as in the nightmare we saw—all in the name of science, et cetera."

As he said this, a single large 'screen' akin to Trixie when she returned for a Magic Duel began to display itself in the dreamscape, depicting individuals committing these acts. And Twilight was starting to reconsider her being curious for killing, which was the intent of this 'lesson'. "Some murders don't pertain to common sense, or any sense of logic," Chronicle took over. "One extreme case is in an alternate world, where one of our distant cousins is now dead, is that the killers ended all life in it because they believe life itself is a crime, since only the living can commit crimes, which to them are all punishable by death.

"In short, the act of murder is supposed to be horrifying. One is not supposed to feel happy they killed, although feeling happy for accomplishing certain things that require it may or may not be justifiable and either can or cannot be countered by the guilt one should feel about taking a life." He indicated himself and his brother. "Like the two of us, for example.

"Over the years as a freelance bodyguard, and sometimes just freelancer, I've had to kill those who threaten my charge's life and/or that of who they care for when other methods just weren't working. Sometimes, as a pony with a strong sense of justice/morality, I've had to act preemptively to do the dirty deed early when the law would be busy stumbling upon itself to dispense their justice or even work in the to-be-killed's favor if spared. I dirty my hooves so others don't have to. And sometimes, it's very tempting to just kill and be done with it, but I care a lot about how others like the public see me, and so I often hold back, all for that.

"Killing is ugly business, and I won't let you go down that path ever for as long as I can. There are some who can take it, like my family, and may or may not be desensitized over time, there are those who could be scarred for a long time (whether it's for weeks, for months, or for life) when forced as a witness or a culprit of it, and there are those who realize they love it, like an addict to a narcotic. (I'd say drugs, but those're medicinal as well.) Your nightmare—yes, we were indeed in there—showed us you were about to be in the third category. We had to put a stop to it; real friends don't kill unless it's for a very good reason." There was no need to say that Pinkie was the dream victim.

While Twilight was listening, she was occasionally also looking at the screen, which did not actually show a lot of gore. Strange, as she's usually ignorant of everything else around her when she's focused on something, namely taking in what her bodyguard had to say. And then the image showed things (apparently) from Chronicle's perspective—or, more likely, his own Surveillance camera—as he performed the deed on his enemies. One showed him stopping likely would-be assassins of the charge he had failed to protect, another showed him mowing down Discord cultists in a cave amidst cries of rage, and yet another showed him accidentally killing somepony by knocking her head into a dresser.

And then the images changed into something different, which was about the time Chronicle decided to pause for breath; the image of somepony flying with purpose across dark corridors, making their way around a Canterlot mansion by negotiating windows, hiding behind items, sticking to the ceiling, making distractions, and incapacitating guards whenever absolutely necessary. Eventually, the "POV pony" reached a bedroom, where a sleeping pony was covered in their blanket, and where a bodyguard stood by the door. It was quite obvious who the "POV pony" was; an assassin.

This assassin snuck toward the apparent target first, summoned his swords, pulled the sheets with its aura to verify if it wasn't just a decoy under it like pillows or a body double, confirmed the target was the real deal, and drove one of his blades into their heart. He then used the other blade to fire a beam of energy at the now-alerted bodyguard to knock him back, and then make a quick getaway, in which the scene ended.

"That was just one of many of my missions as the Angel of Doom back when the Night Court in my world was a cesspool of elite snobs, power-hungry politicians, and where that was the norm, with the exception of Fancypants," Blue spoke up. "Trixie, who had always dreamed of being part of it, was heavily traumatized at that discovery. Thankfully, after what we did during the Gala, while my older siblings just got themselves wound up in shenanigans in their worlds, the Night Court got a severe talk-down and are now under strict watch by the Princess." He turned to face Chronicle. "Yes, according to Mystic Wand, during the Gala he attended, what was supposed to be a classical series of Magic Duels somehow turned into a Magic Free-For-All/food fight which the Princess was at a loss to stop until it was all over.

"But I'm getting off-track here." Back to Twilight. "As I said about the Night Court, they have done terrible things with the law; usurping each other's positions, not caring who they stomp on to further their ambitions, general blackmail. One would do anything to protect Equestria, even shelter the Elements of Harmony in a bunker as long as Corona was free. One wants everything with worth, though she does take lots of effort to maintain them. One even refused to give aid to a town that needed it all because of a grudge on somepony living there."

"What?!" Twilight couldn't believe the atrocities one could do with such political power.

"Back then, before finally solving the problem, my world's Princess Luna tried and failed time and again to purge them, and thus she hired me (and others) to do what needed to be done. None of us in the family are very keen with politicians, due to it being an altogether different 'battlefield', and Father only has his position because 'the best person to wield power is usually someone who doesn't want it, because it ensures that the person will use it carefully and conscientiously.' or something like that. In this case, he's cool with his physical/magical power, but not so much with political power.

"And to ensure I wasn't merely being misguided, I stalked my targets, not only to find an opportune time, but to see if what they do really is despicable. I don't claim to be the perfect judge, but with the corruption that was there, compounded with the fact that more and more may become so the longer it stays, something had to be done. And I'll admit I felt a bit ashamed in deciding to specialize in this art, and so before Trixie and I got whisked in your world, I didn't even tell my family about it, and certainly not my friends before they found out at the Gala. I mean, what would you think if you discovered your friend killed for a living? Which is different from willing to do so as my family is.

"Well, we were certainly shocked when Chronicle sometimes shows his willingness to kill," Twilight answered. "I'd probably be even more appalled had I not read that book. I'm not sure how the others would take it though if they found out he was an assassin, which he thankfully isn't, right?"

"He isn't. Well, my friends took it a bit better than I anticipated, though they've faced a lot more crap than you have. Before we stopped the Night Court, we dealt wih foalnapping, a prankster worse than your world's Gilda with a friend in a high place which spurred one of my friends to nearly murder her, spies, settling a village-wide feud staged by a third party, helping a blackmailed pony who believes she deserved it when she really didn't, a raid under Canterlot that required an ad-hoc alliance with the Diamond Dogs, saving a mythical beast from near-death, and a "zombie"-drunkard apocalypse among other things thanks to all the liquor being affected by a spell."

"As for us, regarding "crap", and I'm not counting what happened after Discord here," Chronicle stepped in. "We've only had to deal with a sleeping dragon which was finished without any drastic violence, a bloodless war between settlers and natives, a misunderstanding regarding a zebra… and that's it. Our world's definitely brighter than my brother's, even though dangers do exist. In any case, Twilight, I hoped we satisfied you with what we have told you. It might not be enough, but I hope you won't ever see killing as something you'd like to do."

"I… I definitely won't," the non-Timer shuddered as she spoke. "Thank you for… for everything. I guess I should return to my dreamscape now."

"That you should. See you in the morning, and not a word of this to anypony."

She nodded as she disappeared back to her own dreamscape. Once she was gone, Blue turned his eyes to the screen, which began to disappear, and said, "I know you're in there, Wand. Did you inhibit her curiosity like last time, even though I wasn't there?"

An invisibility spell vanished and revealed his and Chronicle's older brother, a blue unicorn in a star-pattern cape, glasses, and whose muzzle is very identifiable as a stallion's. "Yes, I did," he confessed. "Though I overheard what you intended to do, so I didn't use the MemLock on top of that. And I'm sorry for snooping on your talk, but I knew I wasn't needed for your discussion about killing. I mean, I understand why, but I just don't like it. There's always another way."

"And why were you snooping in the first place?" Chronicle then asked.

"Testing a new dream spell, as well as my ability to conceal myself. How long before you figured out I was here, Blue?"

"Right after the screen was brought up as Chronicle began to speak regarding one of their dead distant cousins. That slight shimmer as you immediately ducked and hid behind it."

"I see. Well, this has been an interesting night. I think it's best we get back to our own dreamscapes. Even if we somehow don't lose sleep doing this, you just feel nasty when you're forced awake while you're in another's dreamscape."

"I can attest to that," agreed Blue. "Well, see ya, Chronicle."

And with that, the blue mare-faced unicorn's two brothers vanished back to their own dreamscapes, leaving him alone. He let out a huge sigh, then said to himself, "Man, I haven't gone out with Fluttershy as often as I ought to. I'll have to fix that."

SCFIM—SCFIM—SCFIM—SCFIM—SCFIM—SCFIM

Apologies again for ending it this way. I just didn't know how to make a proper finish for this premise. See ya on Third!