//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: A Horrible Truth Revealed // Story: Chimes In the Dark // by Faindragon //------------------------------// Chimes In the Dark - Chapter 7: A Horrible Truth Revealed NOTE: Grammar not corrected The chime echoed through the statue of the sun, magically making its way to its twin statue, the moon statue in the throne room. Oh how fun she had, it was a long time since she had seen Notharam this afraid, a long time since she had seen that emotional mix of horror and fear in his face. And she enjoyed it, she enjoyed every minute of it. Notharam really was a thick-headed idiot, who hadn’t figured out yet who she was, whom he had abandoned and betrayed mere years ago. The betrayal that had been the start to this nightmare, the betrayal that had pushed this all, made all of this happen. Thunder had figured it out by now, when she had showed him his past with Notharam. She laughed, a cold, hollow laugh. The quill was once more magically lifted, making the fifth line on the paper. The night was far from over, and she would enjoy every minute of it. It was time to drop the last piece of information, the information that would shatter Notharam’s hope to shards. This would be fun. ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Notharam flinched. ‘What could possibly be worse than the things she has shown me so far? Mistrunner…. How could I just ignore her all this time, how could I have been so blind? And Zinky, could she really be his filly? The color on the eyes was right…. And on the coat… And Emerald, was he doomed only because I saved his daughter's life?’ Notharam’s heart ached, he felt how a tear rolled down his cheek. Had he really doomed them all? “Yes you have Notharam, you doomed them all. From your own little filly, to the girl whom you never noticed. They are all doomed because of you, they have all be chosen as sacrifices because of you.” The cold voice laughed. “You should never have betrayed me in the first place, Notharam. Now you and everypony around you will pay. Lay back and enjoy the show now, Notharam. This part is for your eyes only; I didn’t even show it to Thunder.” The statue changed. Notharam flinched at the magenta eyes that meet his, magenta eyes filled with tears. He couldn’t mistake who it was, not with the hair that swirled in the background. Celestia, princess and goddess of Equestria. “What is this?” Notharam whispered. “Why do you show me a picture of Celestia? What does that have to do with anything?” “Don’t you understand, Notharam?” The cold voice called out. “She can see you, she has seen everypony in here, have watched over them every night. Still she haven’t done anything to stop me. She only watches, noting down everypony who dies on a parchment!” “No, it cannot be. It have to be a lie. Our princess would never leave us to a maniac like you! Why would she abandon us in a place like this?” Notharam whispered, he couldn’t believe anything of this. “A maniac like me? You have no idea Notharam. You made me this way, you were the one who betrayed me, who abandoned me! Let me show you, Notharam, how much your goddess helped the others. She have her reasons you know? If you lost somepony, wouldn’t you do everything to get him or her back?” The voice laughed and the statue changed, the sad magenta eyes slowly fading away, eyes that still hadn’t blinked once. The statue showed him a room. A wooden door led into the room at the left wall, a door decorated with gold and silver. A fire was lit in the fireplace and a window let the cold moonlight shine through. On some cushions, cushions colored in purple and yellow, lay the goddess of the day and night, the princess of Equestria, Celestia. She had a parchment in front of her, together with an orb. Tears had formed in Celestia’s eyes, and her horn glowed with magic. The quill wrote down a single name, Noir, on the parchment, a parchment that had started to get wet of the tears streaming down Celestia’s muzzle. Notharam reacted strongly on this. FeatherHeart? Had she died here, had he doomed her as well? But it couldn’t be. Doctor FeatherHeart had been his doctor for years, she had been the one who had taken care and tried to save Silverstar’s life when the birthing accident had occurred. FeatherHeart had died this very winter in his sleep. Nopony knew what he had died from, the doctors who had checked him hadn’t found anything that could have caused the death. FeatherHeart had been buried only days after he had died. The statue changed again, showing him exaclty the same room once more. Celestia sat at the cushions once more, tear roiling down her muzzle. The quill was lifted again, noting down two more names, Obsidian and Smoulder. Notharam was shocked. They were dead? He remembered them faintly; they had been friends of his during his time in his last years of school. They had drifted apart after school, however, he hadn’t heard from them in years. The statue changed again. But something was different this time. Celestia didn’t seem sad, she seemed…. Afraid and furious. It seemed as if she screamed at the orb, the parchment was no were to be seen. Notharam could see a pair of eyes in the orb, a pair of cold, blue eyes. No sound was heard from the statue, but Celestia’s feeling shone through her, it was scarily easy to read. The fury was removed, replaced with first curiosity, sadness and horror. The horror and sadness disappeared, and she slowly sat down at the cushions again. Celestia sat in that position for a while, her facial features unchanged. Then suddenly was the anger and wrath back again. She flew up from the cushions, and kicked the orb across the room. It flew straight towards a wall, stopping with a dark light mere centimeters from it. Slowly did the orb start to levitate towards Celestia, spinning around her. Celestia’s facial features changed once more, now it shone defeat. The orb stopped and floated back towards the place it had been positioned at from the beginning, the cold blue eyes faded away from it. Celestia heavily sat down in the cushions, magically conjured a quill and a parchment;onto which she started to write something with the quill. Notharam couldn’t read what it was she wrote, and when she was finished did she send the parchment away. Celestia now cried, tears streaming down her face. But why did she look so defeated? A new parchment was conjured by the alicorns magic, and a single line was placed down on it. A line containing a name he had feared to read. Silverstar. Notharam opened his mouth, ready to shout out his hate towards the statue, ready to let it all out. The tears that had burned his eyes, tears of sadness and anger, but also tears of loss, rolled down his cheeks. However, before he could scream out all his hate and loss toward the statue, did he feel the cold hoof against his muzzle again. The cold voice was heard. “Don’t scream out your anger Notharam, I told you that the others already believe you close to insanity, don’t push it any closer. Screaming out to thin air for something you have seen and they have not is one fast way to make them believe that you have snapped. Do you really want to put that on poor Mistrunner?” A soft chuckle emerged from the voice. “I didn’t think so.” The hoof disappeared. “There is other ways for you to talk to me Notharam, ways that you have to find for yourself.” What did she mean? How could he talk to her without using his voice? What did that maniac want of him and the others? “Just like that Notharam, that is how easy you talk with me. Through your small little mind, through your thoughts, I can hear every thought you have if I want. The mind is the most powerful thing in any pony. Well, not in you perhaps, you were never bright when it came to thinking. And I thought we had been through this before, I’m not a maniac.” She laughed again. “A maniac wouldn’t be able to do this; a maniac would never be able to get this master plan to the finish. I have already told you, Notharam, you and the rest are here as the last sacrifices.” The cold voice rang in his head, he had to fight himself from putting his hooves over his ears, knowing that it wouldn’t help. ‘You killed Silverstar! Why did you do that? Was she a part of your plan as well? She had a filly your heartless monster!’ “Oh Notharam, no she wasn’t that big of a thing around my plan. And the filly was the reason why I killed her. I didn’t want to start this before this year, but I had to put some rocks in motion, otherwise you would never have joined the army again. I had to show Celestia why I did this, and she… agreed with me that it was of necessity that it happened. And I’m the heartless one? You ignored those around you who loved you.” ‘How do you mean that the filly was the reason? And why did I have to return to the army for it to work out? And what did Celestia agree on?’ That laugh was heard again, followed with the cold voice. “It was a filly spawned from your love; of course I wanted it sacrificed together with its mother. Unfortunately did I only get one of the two, I wasn’t as good at this then as I am now, at first could I only take one at the time, and Silverstar were weak at the point of birthing. And how would I be able to search your past if you were not close to me? And at the thing that Celestia agreed on, let us say that you will notice in time.” Notharam felt sick. Silverstar, the one he had loved, had not died from giving birth. No, it had been so much worse. And what did she mean search his past, no file had been created when he reentered the army. And could it be that Celestia let this happen only like that? What was Celestia’s reason? The cold voice whispered softly to him, whispering as if she tried to soothe him. ”Celestia have abandoned you, just like you abandoned me mere years ago.” The cold voice chuckled. “You really don’t remember me, do you? After all the time we spent together? Well then, let us see if I can brighten your memory. Does the name….” “The translation is finished!” Emerald called out. And the clock chimed.