After that day, life took an even rougher course. When I became thirteen, we began lessons on combat magic. With those lessons came duel practices, where we would split into groups of two and try to use the combat magic we learned, including the stunning spell and the deflection shields. Of course those magic weren’t harmful; they left a pony stunned for a minute or two at the most, and since most of us weren’t that acquainted with using combat magic yet, the effects on ponies were significantly weaker.
With the exception of the four bullies, of course.
During practices, they would take turns to be in the same group as me, and would hurl whatever combat magic we had learned that day at full force towards me. I would, meanwhile, try to put up a deflection shield; not that it had much effect on blocking the spells, but still, it was better than nothing.
And whenever those spells struck me, it hurt. A lot. Not to mention that it left me dizzy or paralyzed as Tartarus for a few minutes. And I couldn’t throw my own spells at full force at them, or I would have to face consequences after class. I learned that the hard way. I had to shake off the black eye and the bruises as “having slipped on a puddle of water and crashed face first into a wall” after that.
I guess the only reason I managed to remain sane during this period was thanks to Echo, who was the only friend I had left. Everytime I would retire to my room, either badly bruised or on the verge of crying, he would hop out of his cage, fly over to me, and land on my hoof. I would talk to him for hours on end, while he listened to every word, every single event that had gone down that day. He would wipe my tears with his wings whenever I cried, and would spend the night talking away with me. Well, it was a rather one-sided conversation, but at least he gave responses, chirping whenever I wanted an answer, as if he knew what was going on in my mind.
At this point, Echo was pretty much the only thing that kept me going.
And they took him away from me.
About two years later, when I was fourteen, just a month away from my fifteenth birthday, it happened. I had just returned from school to my dorm room, just as bruised and exhausted as any other day had been.
“Echo, I’m back,” I called out.
Usually, Echo would have hopped out of his cage and flew his way over to me, chirping joyfully all the way. However, that day, only silence remained. I became slightly uneasy, but then I thought Echo might be taking a nap.
“What, is my little fella tired?” I asked, walking over to Echo’s cage.
About five feet away from the cage, I froze. Echo lay on the floor of the cage, motionless. On the cage floor, a white powder lay scattered. I felt my heart skipping a beat. I rushed over to the cage, whose door was ajar.
“H… hey, what’s wrong, dude? Aren’t you going to say ‘hi’ to Lux?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. I levitated him off the floor and onto my hooves. He was cold as ice. That’s when it hit me; Echo was dead.
“Oh… Celestia… it’s going to be alright, please, Echo, tell me you’re still alive. Come on, dude, why aren’t you breathing? Please, don’t give up on me, please… Echo… come on, your favorite pony’s here, why aren’t you opening your eyes? Come on… p… please don’t… don’t die…” I rambled on and on, once again sitting on my haunches in a dark corner, sobbing into my forehooves. But this time, my bluebird friend wasn’t there to sing to me, console me. He just lay there, on the floor, motionless. And I would never hear that familiar chirp again.
I buried Echo beneath a tree near the edge of the schoolyard. I didn’t show any signs of sadness while burying him; I only maintained an expressionless face.
The white powder on the cage floor turned out to be potassium cyanide. At first I wondered how it ended up in Echo’s cage, but then potassium cyanide was being used in chemical experiments in the school, and it was relatively easy to sneak a bit of the substance out of the laboratory.
It didn’t take long for me to guess who had been behind Echo’s death: the four bullies. The moment I reached this conclusion, I completely lost it. I let fury take over control of my body, as I began to throw and destroy objects in my room, screaming and crying throughout the destruction. When the tantrum was over, the room looked as if it had been bombed.
After making such a mess of my room, I calmed down a little. I sighed, and cleaned up the fragments I made out of my books and furniture. When the cleaning was done, I sat down in a corner opposite to the window, and started swallowing up my rage. The night went on as I sulked in the corner, unable to fall asleep.
As I sat there for hours, fully awake, the rage inside me cooled, and turned into something else: hatred. Pure, venomous hatred, sizzling underneath the surface. Watching the Sun rise above the horizon, painting itself and the sky a crimson red, I began to think how to avenge Echo’s death.
I couldn’t go into a head-on fight against them; I would lose and get beaten up terribly. No, this operation had to be subtle, to be clandestine. Once I got the proof, the the grown-ups would deal with the rest of the procedures.
“Did they really think they could get away with killing Echo? Well… guess it’s time to show them that they were mistaken,” I muttered to myself, as I prepared to commence the operation.
The teachers had already reached a conclusion that they wouldn’t be able to catch the culprit: too many suspects and all that. Not to mention that they were afraid of accusing an innocent pony. So I devised a plan.
I owned a tape recorder that I got from my dad and used to play around when I was younger. I still had it in my dorm room, and there were plenty of cassette tapes that I possessed. Not that I had anything important recorded in them; mostly childish games I used to do when I was around six or seven.
So I inserted the tape into the recorder, pressed record, put the recorder into my saddlebag, and secured the bag with a strap that went around my barrel. Afterwards, I left my room. I was determined to make this the last time I would be facing those bullies, one way or another.
It didn’t take me long to find the bullies. It was during recess time when I found Boss Gang hunched over with his cronies, poking fun about something in the corner of the school playground. I sneaked up behind a nearby tree, making sure I wasn’t seen.
“So, I’ve heard that that Shux dude’s been broken since his bird died. Is that right?” I heard Sol speak, clearly in a tone that contained no sorrow in it.
“Yeah. Good for him, though. He was kinda becoming a freak, the way he kept talking to that bird of his,” Boss answered, with a tone that indicated he was enjoying the conversation.
Wait, how did they know? I thought. I never showed myself talking with Echo outside of my room! I was about to continue pondering on the subject, when I was yanked out of my thoughts by what I heard next.
“Quite frankly, I think he ought to be grateful to us. We did save him from going insane, even though we had to kill the bird in the process,” said Boss in a smug tone.
“So you did kill him, didn’t you?” I shouted, stepping out from behind the tree.
Boss looked surprised, yet there was still a faint smug smile on his face. Then his expression turned to one of a hunter staring at a worthy prey. It was hard to catch, yet the change was noticeable.
“So, eavesdropping on us now, Shux? And after all this time I thought—” said Boss with a sad look on his face, trying to fake disappointment.
I wouldn’t have any of it.
“Tell me why! Tell me why you did it! From the very first day I came here until two days ago, you never left me alone. You kept poking fun at me, and when those three cronies came along, you shoved me, talked shit behind my back, and beat me up during combat magic lessons. You never stopped when I told you to. And now, you had to take away the dearest thing to me. Why did you do it?!” I screamed, trembling with rage. No tears came from my eyes this time, though; there simply weren’t any tears left to cry.
“Why? Well, mainly because… because it’s fun. To us, you see. And I thought you would enjoy our pranks together. I thought we would be able to laugh it off, you know,” said Boss, showing disappointment. And this time he wasn’t faking it. “It’s a shame you didn’t enjoy it, Shux. I really thought you would enjoy it.” As he said so, a familiar glint showed in his eyes.
Internally, I was horrified. That glint… it was so familiar. Whenever Boss would come and bully me to Tartarus, that fiery glint would show in his eyes. And now, his eyes had the strongest fires I had ever seen in him. And whenever that fire lit up, it meant trouble for me.
I felt sick. He truly had fun bullying me. I slowly backed up, saying “I… I’m out of here. I’ve had enough, enough of your… your ‘plays’. I… I’ll see you later.”
With that, I turned around to leave, and saw Nova Rays and Flame Buster were standing right behind me. When did they manage to get behind my back, I wondered. This wasn’t the time for that, however. Sol and Boss were closing on me from the back; Nova and Flame from the front. I was surrounded. Their horns started to glow. So I did the only thing I could think at the moment. I shot Flame Buster with a stunning spell with all of my strength and immediately ran away.
I ran into the school building, running through hallways and staircases. I could hear the bullies galloping behind me, and I kicked more power into my legs. They were catching up, however. More than once, when I turned a corner into another hallway or staircase, spells would fly behind my head and smash into the wall. After minutes of running, however, I was running out of strength. My lungs burned, my legs ached, and, worst of all, I had ran into a dead end. I was back in my dormitory, and it was a one-way passage. So I did the only thing I could think of: I dashed towards my room, opened the door, and slammed it close, but not before three spells smacked into my hind legs. Although, I did make sure I locked the door as I fell over.
I crashed onto the floor of my dorm room. I tried to get up, but found out that I couldn’t. I immediately realized what this was. A stunning spell. Or rather, stunning spells. I tried to move again. This time I could move my forelegs, although my lower body remained paralyzed. I panicked. There was no way I was getting anywhere in this state, and for all I knew, the bullies were right outside the door. It wouldn’t be long before they got to my room. I had to act fast. I quickly opened my saddlebag, pulled out the recorder with my magic, hid it in a book, and put the book away in a bookshelf. Then I dragged myself over to a corner near my desk, trying to get my hind legs to cooperate. I wasn’t going to get anywhere in this state, and I didn’t have the power to teleport after getting hit by that spell. I managed to crawl the distance, and just as I folded my hind legs in using my forelegs, the door burst open.
Damn, I thought, that didn’t take long.
I wrapped my forehooves around my head in a cowering position. I awaited my fate to fall upon me. Seconds that seemed to be an eternity passed, when a thought entered my head. How ironic, I thought bitterly, that even on the day I was determined to end this bullying once and for all, I’m once again stuck in my room, crouched in a corner. This is just how things are supposed to go for me, I guess. Like how it’s always been. Like how it is. And that’s how it will be. Well, then what’s the point of all this, this… fighting against them and standing up to them and whatnot.
I closed my eyes, lowered my forelegs, and leaned my head against the side of the desk, licking my lips. They had a bitter taste. I stayed there for another several moments, awaiting my fate. I even began to wonder when they would find me.
“Well, well, well. Look what we have here.” A familiar bossy voice reached my eardrums. I opened my eyes.
“You’re so going to regret shooting that spell at me, Shux. I’ll beat you to death,” rasped Flame Buster.
“Well,” I said, with a tone that sounded even bitterer, “I don’t even care at this point. Maybe you should, seeing how you made me just… not care anymore. So, are you here to punch me, or what?”
To be honest, I couldn’t have cared less if they had beat me to death, right there and then. But, well, they didn’t. Although the punchings and beatings did go on for a good few hours while I writhed on the floor, more because of the pain than the will to do at least something to avoid the incoming hooves and magic spells.
At first, they shot magic spells at me, leaving bruises and marks wherever they hit. And when they ran out of steam, they began to use their own hooves, kicking and bucking and stomping. I began wondering how I wasn’t unicorn powder yet, and then, as a powerful hoof made contact with the side of my head, I blacked out.
I must have been out for a few hours, because when I opened my eyes, the Sun was setting. I tasted blood in my mouth. I felt around my nose and saw that it was bleeding heavily as well. It was difficult to breathe, with each breath bringing a stinging sensation to my nose. Must have broken my nose, I mused. I touched the sides of my head, which was ringing with a killing headache. I felt something warm and sticky on the right side, which, to no big surprise, turned out to be blood. I blinked. Something warm and red trickled down into left my eye, stinging it. I closed my left eye; I could pretty easily guess what the liquid was, and I wasn’t going to let it enter my eye anymore than necessary.
Breathing heavily, I managed to crawl across the floor and lean against the wall, staring outside the window. There was a pain in my chest everytime I breathed. I tasted iron in my mouth. I coughed, and ended up spitting blood on my yellowish amber fur, staining it a crimson red color. The sky outside was turning a dark shade of blue, almost indigo. Soon the Moon would rise, and everypony would be heading to sleep, while I, breathing with difficulty and slowly bleeding out, was having difficulty staying awake.
Huh, so this is actually how it ends, I thought, I wished for this to end one way or another, but… hay, I never actually expected it to end this way. At least I’ll get to see Echo when I get there. Looks like I’ll die here. Good thing it’s not that painful. Aside from the bruises and the headache and the chest pain, of course. Heh, looks like this is actually the end. It’s not so bad, at least….
As my consciousness faded away, I thought I might have heard the door opening and somepony screaming. I wasn’t sure about it.