//------------------------------//
// Episode 5 - A Poisoned Soul 
// Story: The Halcyon Days 
// by Ivo 
//------------------------------//


The Halcyon Days



Episode 5 - A Poisoned Soul



'…He felt like bursting with energy. Rising from his seat, he took Vivana´s hands and pulled her to her feet as well. “Come along! Let´s finally start to celebrate.”
Hand in hand, they went along the meadow straight towards Bradost, and within, their new life.
There was much work to do.


The End'



The colt closed his eyes and closed the book, holding the picture in his head as long as possible. Finally, he had finished the last part of the ‘Pandeamonia’-book series, ‘Phoenixfire’ it was called. Smiling, his eyes opened slowly, letting the picture in his head dissipate and the book´s heroes have their rest in his imagination.

It was late evening and Shadow Star was still at the school´s library. Surrounded by hundreds of wooden bookshelves with thousands of books, he was reading his favorite ones and always searching for new worlds they could show him. He smiled. The last world he had been ‘captured’ in would be his new special favorite. ‘The Last Dreamwanderer’...the title of the first book of the series had been the reason why he had read the book. He simply loved fantasy books. Unexplored worlds and dimensions with thousands of monsters and heroes in golden armors!

Shadow Star was a dreamer. The young black-coated colt with the shining yellow mane and its white streak loved to let his thoughts roam. The librarian´s son let his fantasy work. His imagination never rested. He loved to dream! To imagine the craziest things! Every night was a gift for him.
And he was one of the very special ponies in the world who knew how to work their magic in their dreams. Related to that, his cutie mark was a dark blue starlit sky with a big round full moon in its middle.

“Shady!” a sudden female voice called his nickname and a brown elder mare appeared between the bookshelves.
The colt looked at her smiling. “Yes, mommy?” he asked.
“Prepare to leave. I´m finished for today. Let´s go home and get something to eat on the way.”
“Okay. Can I search a book for at home before we leave?” The colt looked at his mother with pleading eyes.
She just chuckled. “Okay, sweetie. But hurry!”
“Okay…” he just replied and left his seat.

Today, he wanted to take a book from the old dusty cardboard box he had found on one of the shelves. He took one of the dozens of white ladders in the library and moved it into position. Carefully, he climbed the shelf for his destination. Finally, Shadow reached the box and blew at it, causing a cloud of dust which made him cough.
Slowly, he opened the box and his curiousness drew him right through the Styrofoam protection surface and to the dozens of books underneath. Fighting his way past books with boring-sounding titles, he dug deeper and deeper.

The last book at the bottom of the box caught his attention.
It was a very old tomb with a brown leather-hardcover. It had no title, neither on its front nor its side. Only a strange circle with six golden orbs and mysterious signs inside them was on its cover.
Shadow frowned and decided to take the curious book with him. He grabbed it with his mouth and wanted to climb down the ladder when he suddenly felt a sharp stinging pain from his mouth wandering straight to his head.

Flinching, he let the book fall back into the box and rubbed his head. The pain was gone as fast as it had come. Frowning again about the pain´s source, he slowly took the book again. This time, there was nothing.

Shrugging, he climbed down the ladder and left the library together with his mother, not knowing, that this book better had been left untouched for all eternity…


______________________________________________________________________


“She´s too powerful!” a filly panted next to him.
“But we can´t give up we-“
In this moment, two huge spiders pounced on them.

They jumped to the side and avoided their attack. With shining swords, the filly and the colt tried to defend themselves. The mocking laughter of the witch that controlled the two nightmares took them nearly every last single hope.
One last hit of the spiders wrested their swords from them and sent them back. They drew back until they felt the white wall of the huge wide throne hall in their backs. Horrified, they watched the spiders coming closer for the final stroke. “You foals seriously thought you could defeat me? ME?” the witch mocked and laughed sinister. “Now, you´ll pay your foolish acting with your lives!”

The filly and the colt only hugged, waiting for their end.
“I´m sorry it ends like this.” the colt whispered in the filly´s ear.
She shook her head. “Nothing is over, yet. You can still defeat her! Believe me, Shadow.”
The black colt looked curious at the filly in front of him. “But how?”
“I´ll give you my energy.”
“But…but that means…you will…”
“It´s the only way, Shadow…I´m sorry.” the filly meant and hugged him tighter, pressing a small kiss on his cheek. And then, a glow surrounded her and she started to transfer her energy to him…and finally vanished.

The colt only started to tear up and sniffed.
“Twilight…”

“Ooooooh, how cuuuuute…”

Shadow frowned. That was not the voice of the witch from before. He snapped out of his dream-game and looked around. He was still in the white hall, the two big spiders still in front of him. His eyes closed and his imagination worked. The hall and the spiders vanished and a wide green meadow with a clear blue sky appeared.

The black colt sighed and lay down on his back, staring at the sky. He liked Twilight Sparkle, the prized student of Celestia. Much. But his dreams were the only place where he could be at her side. Sure, he tried to talk to her at school, but Shadow never had been very forward and was always very shy. And after all, Twilight had cast an eye on Bleach, the young Auraknight. That, at least, was what his eyes told him, the way she looked at and talked to him.
She may didn´t have noticed yet, but if this Bleach was her special somepony, he wouldn´t stand in their way. In fact, he would help them to strengthen their relation!

“Oh, please! You can´t be serious!”

He frowned. There it was again, the voice from before. He looked around but couldn´t find anypony. None the less, the voice continued to talk to him:

“You are unable to pull the wool over my eyes. I see it, deep inside your soul. Don´t try to blow smoke in my face, I´m a pro!”

“Who are you?” he shouted into the emptiness of the meadow. “Show yourself!”
Suddenly, the shadows gathered at one point in front of him. They took the form of a pony and vanished as fast as they had gathered, revealing the mare that had spoken to him.
She was an elder pale pink-coated alicorn-mare with an elegant dark pink waving mane and tail. Two shining blue eyes focused on him. An elder stallion surely would have said she would be one of the most beautiful mares of the world with her slender and sultry feminine curves. Two long black ribbons were tied in her mane and tail and waved graceful in an inexistent breeze.

“What´s in names?...” she cooed and sighed. “I can´t believe you´re serious with your thoughts!”
“What do you mean? And how do you come here? You are not part of my dream!” his horn began to glow menacingly.
The mare tried to calm him. “Slow down, little colt. I don´t want to hurt you. Just talk…”
“About what?”
She smirked and cooed: “About your desires…”
Shadow blinked confused. “My…desires?”
“Uh-huh.” the mare answered and lay down on the grass. “There are wishes and longings inside you. Desires you suppress just to have others their way. That´s unquestionably noble, but you can´t live your whole life with these suppressed wishes.”

The colt frowned. “What is your point?”
She smirked again; resting her head on her crossed fore legs and watched him. “You like that filly, Twilight was her name, right? You crave for a kiss from her!”
He blushed. “Well…Of course I like her, but…”
“Don´t lie at me…” she cooed. “It´s useless.”
Shadow sighed. “Okay…Yes. Yes I like her. And I wish I would have a little bit of her attention.”
“And why don´t you fight for her attention?” the nameless mare asked.
He shook his head. “She likes Bleach. And I don´t want to ruin that. I think they would be lovely together.”
The mare moaned dramatically and fixated him with her gaze. “Are you serious? If I would have your feelings for her I would fight for her attention! What does that Bleach have what you don´t have? She may likes him but you thought it for yourself: She didn´t notice yet! Why would you help your rival instead of using your advantage to win her heart for yourself?”
“Well…”
“You just suppress your own wishes! Do you seriously want to have everypony its way with you?”
“I…”
“Do you always want to ignore your own wishes just to do the others a favor? Do you really want to trash your life like that?”
“No, but…”
“Then fight for your desires! Fight for your wishes! Don´t be just a dreamer and pushover and start to live your dreams! Cost what it may!” the mare shouted at him, the words ringing in his head. A headache was starting to invade his brain. He rubbed his head. What was going on? The words of the mare were true. If he wanted to fulfill his wishes he had to fight for them! But something was wrong the way she said it.
It sounded wrong.
Bad.
Evil!

“No…”
“Well, if you just always want to be a little pushover that is settling with what the others leave for him on the huge buffet of life, go, live your pathetic little life! But…if you want my help and the help of my friends…”
He held his head, protected his ears from her words. “No…”
“Think about it! The possibilities! Our powers are strong! Of course, there is something you have to do for us as well, but…that´s just a small task for a colt with your powers…What do you say? Do you want to live like a worm your whole life long or do you want to be the lion? The king above all!”
He shook his head vigorously. The voice became more intensive, more forceful! He protected his ears but he still could hear her! He tried to wake up, to flee from her, but he couldn´t! The headache was driving the young colt insane.
“Please, stop it!” he started to tear up.

But the voice continued, every argument hit his head like a sledge-hammer the anvil, led more poisoned words through his head and his whole body. The world around him was spinning. More voices joined hers. The voices of three stallions and two other mares. And they all told him the same, fed his soul and veins with the same venom.
“Live your dreams!”
“Fight for you desires!”
“Give in your urges and needs!”
“Free yourself, take us, use us, and satisfy your cravings!”

The pain was unbearable!
He screamed, long and loud, but no one heard the tormented soul.
No one was there to help him.

The last thing remaining after his scream was only dark silence...

And when he awoke the next morning, the Shadow Star he once had been was captured deep inside his soul, buried by black poison, dark cravings and sinister thoughts how to fulfill them…