//------------------------------// // Unsaid // Story: My Little Death Note // by Caberea //------------------------------// Twilight awoke groggily despite having slept soundly that night. She had actually made sure that she wasn’t plagued by the nightmares she had experienced the previous night by focusing on a single object in her mind. It was originally a trick that had been developed approximately 4800 years ago in order to combat illusion magic, but it worked just as well for keeping nightmares at bay. Of course, focusing on it meant she couldn’t really have good dreams, but a dream about the very book she had learnt the trick from wasn’t too bad. Perhaps she could have given it a read sometime, had it not been one of the unrecoverable books destroyed in Star’s fire. Then again, she could remember most of the book from memory, or at least the parts relating to magic. The book had been published by a mare named Shadowveil, supposedly 23 years before the creation of Equestria, an unusual feat since Shadowveil had been a commoner amongst the unicorns during the time of publication. “Illusion Magic: Real or Reality?” had somehow managed to become a published book despite all the odds, and had been considered quite the controversial book at the time, as it would have given the other races knowledge of how to defend themselves from an entire school of magic. There must have been fewer less than a hundred copies left worldwide, and now that was one less copy left thanks to Star. It was almost as if that unicorn spent her entire life dedicated to getting on Twilight’s nerves. The thought inevitably leading Twilight to wonder where Star was. It was almost precisely at that moment that she heard the door burst open downstairs and Star announced joyfully “I’m back.” At which point Twilight wondered if there was anything precious to Star that was flammable. It was incredibly irritating having to live with that pony, let alone acknowledge her existence. If the Death Note would only work on Star then the damned mare would be dead already, but as it happened, the most annoying obstacle in her way not only had to keep living, but had to keep living with Twilight. It was as if these last few days were a hastily written romance and the two would end up making up at the end after one of them had saved the other’s life or something stupid like that. Fortunately Twilight had far more important things to do that day than to worry about Star. The day had finally arrived for her friends to meet up at the Spa where they could talk to each other; Spike still hadn’t gotten back yet though, so he would probably be unable to talk to Rarity that week like he had wanted. The last thought had happened only in passing, but it made Twilight stop and wonder why it was that Spike hadn’t gotten back yet. What could be keeping him? Perhaps Celestia or Luna had needed him to help them, but what was there that the princesses would need a young dragon for other than… …Experimentation? The word echoed around her mind. It would make sense, with Spike at the palace and Twilight not around they would be able to do anything they wanted to the poor dragon. The real question was whether they would or not. Would…they? Twilight was slightly disturbed about the thoughts in her mind. She had been questioning herself a lot lately about the princesses. Her entire mind seemed to be in turmoil over the subject; well, not her entire mind. Kill…them… There was at least some part of her mind that had committed itself to the murder of Luna and Celestia. Perhaps it would be so much easier to just have them dead and be done with it. They were partially Shinigami’s after all. They might question her right to rule over death in her world. Our…perfect…world… How could her world be perfect with such powerful remnants of the old world still around? How could she rise to her position as goddess unless those two were dead, crushed to nothing underneath her hooves. Crush…them… Then there was Star, and the rest of the Shinigami, they would all have to die; every last one of them. But to do that she would need to become stronger, more powerful than any unicorn before her. To create her perfect world, first she would need to be perfect. Perfect… The murderous part of her mind echoed the word. We…will…be…perfect… ----------------------------------------- “What the hell was that about Old Man?” The Old Man wasn’t sure he had ever seen Ryuk so annoyed. Generally the Shinigami was attempting to be sly or witty, but Ryuk was just plain pissed off at him now. It made sense really, Ryuk had a habit of having to come down to this world due to him ‘losing’ his Death Note. But this time he didn’t have anypony to mess with until they died. “I wanted to tell you that you were right. Ponies can indeed by very entertaining.” “Don’t screw with me Old Man, you dragged me down here, and it isn’t like you to do that for something as simple as revenge. So tell me, what’s your plan?” If The Old Man had to admire something about Ryuk, it was his ability to understand both Shinigami and mortals. He quickly realized aspects of them, and generally knew what to do in order to get the reaction he wanted. Regardless, this time there was nothing Ryuk could do for things to go his way. That is, there was nothing Ryuk could do but comply with his wishes. “I believe you asked me what I would do in order to get my own Death Note back Ryuk, Is that not correct?” “Yes.” “And then you threw it down to this world, binding me here until either the book was relinquished or its new owner died, and here I found my answer. To get my Death Note back I would drag down, not just you, but all the Shinigami.” “And how does bringing me and the other Shinigami possibly help you get your Death Note back?” The Old Man paused. How much of his position did Ryuk need to know? He was for all purposes enslaved to that unicorn, he couldn’t kill the unicorn himself without binding himself to their plane of existence…and if something were to happen to his Death Note while on their plane he would never be able to leave it. The Old Man let out an aggravated sigh before he responded to the question. “I’m going to need your help…” The Old Man had been prepared for a speech mocking him, or at least something insulting. Though he had been able to demand respect back in the Shinigami realm, the fact that he had been brought down to this world was enough to be humiliating. That, and it was Ryuk, perhaps the most mocking and petty Shinigami to ever have existed. Which was why it came as a surprise to The Old Man when Ryuk said nothing other than, “Why not?” It was almost enough to throw The Old Man off, almost… “Okay then, I’ll need you to find somepony, anypony, who might be able to kill this mare. See if you can find any of the other Shinigami, but make sure it’s the pony in possession of their Death Note that does the killing. The pony in possession of my Death Note is currently killing off so many ponies that there is no doubt that killing her directly would no doubt be considered as ‘Extending their life’. That pony will need to kill her directly though, she has my Death Note, so the others aren’t going to work. So once you find the other Shinigami, tell them I will not let them leave until they have killed the unicorn living in the Ponyville library. If they go back to the Shinigami realm I will pull them back down. They are trapped here with me, unless they kill Twilight Sparkle.” --------------------------------------------- Twilight Sparkle was at that moment heading towards the Spa. Even if it her friends hadn’t been there she would probably have taken the chance to get away from Star. How could a pony be such a serious threat, yet so pettily annoying at the same time? Twilight had decided that she would be outside for most of the day, yesterday having prepared for a pony to die from the Death note every ten minutes while she was out. It would serve to further divert suspicion from her if other ponies saw her at the time the killings occurred. It was unlikely that anypony would find out about the Death Note, but if there was anypony else out there who had a Death Note; they would know the true cause of the deaths. Therefore, she would need to be seen in Ponyville, both old and new. All the while criminals would be dying, paying for their crimes against her world. To that purpose she had requested that Star give her some bits to pay for replacements for the books the unicorn had burnt. Twilight would be able to pay for most of the replacements herself, other than those books that were irreplaceable; but it was Star who had destroyed them and Star who should have to pay for them. Twilight had been rather surprised when Star had just given her a sack of bits, throwing them quite violently at Twilight with her magic. Twilight had been right to be surprised though, as when she had checked the sack again minutes later there was not a single bit in the entire bag. Star had probably hoped Twilight would purchase something with them first, so as to incriminate Twilight. Twilight had to set aside her anger against Star as she entered the Spa. It was her problem, and she wouldn’t bring it upon her friends, especially since it might lead her to let slip something about the Death Note. She couldn’t let anypony know about that…not until her perfect world was realized. As she entered the reception she was greeted by a joyful chorus of “Twilight!!!” and a number of ponies pounced on her, causing her to fall backwards onto the ground. Fluttershy, Rainbowdash, and Pinkie Pie had all seemed to have the same idea of hugging Twilight, which unfortunately left her feeling rather crushed before the three gave her some space. “Err…Sorry Twilight.” Rainbow Dash said while seemingly trying to forget the fact she had just been so emotional openly. While Rainbow Dash tried to cover up her embarrassment, Fluttershy was threating over Twilight. “I’m so, so sorry Twilight. It’s just that we haven’t seen each other in so long, and, well, I just couldn’t stop myself. Are you hurt anywhere, is anything broken, are you ok?” “I’m fine Fluttershy, just surprised.” Twilight assured her timid friend, before turning to Pinkie Pie. “Why in Equestria were you so enthusiastic though Pinkie?” Pinkie Pie just shrugged and replied with “Felt like it.” Applejack, which had been leaning against the wall, walked over to Twilight. “Sorry if I wasn’t as affectionate as everypony else Twi’. But I’m just as glad as anypony that you’re back, things haven’t been the same ‘round here without you.” As Twilight looked upon her friends she noticed that they were all there…except for Rarity. “Not that I’m not glad to see you girls. But where’s Rarity?” Fluttershy quickly alleviated her of her fears, “She’s just helping Aloe and Lotus prepare for, they’re the two ponies that work here. None of us knew you were back until Applejack told us.” Pinkie Pie chose that moment to shout out “I did, but Applejack said it first, and so I figured that you didn’t need me to say that I already knew, since you already knew that she already knew, so if I had said that I knew too, then all that would be new is that you would have known that I knew.” Applejack stuffed her hoof over Pinkie’s mouth, where the pink pony kept on trying to talk despite her voice being muffled too much to make out any words. “But we’re all glad you’re back sugar cube. But if you don’t mind me asking, where’s Spike off to, he was with you earlier at the farm?” Before Twilight could respond, Rarity entered the reception room. “Oh Twilight darling, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you. So how where your studies with Celestia?” Why was everypony so interested in knowing about what had happened to her? She was the one who should have all the questions. Could it be that Celestia had told them to keep track of her? Maybe she had let slip something when she had asked Celestia about her father. Could Celestia suspect her of having the Death Note? Could that be why Spike hadn’t come back to her? Was Celestia even now torturing her assistant for answers? “They went…well.” What was she supposed to say? That it would have been better if her teacher hadn’t been constantly limiting her potential? Then again, it was much better than having to talk about Spike’s whereabouts. She might accidentally tell them something about the Shinigami if the conversation kept going in that direction. Fortunately Rarity chose not to push for more information, instead taking a quick look over the group and stating “Looks like everypony is here, shall we proceed ladies?” The group filed into the Spa room, but Applejack paused before entering, and muttered below her breath. “Just ‘cause Twi’s back don’t mean you have to talk like those fancy ponies.” “It’s hardly a fault if one likes to enunciate their words clearly.” Rarity stood alone talking to Applejack, the rest of their friends having gone into the Spa. “Considerin’ who brought those ponies here I think it could be.” Applejack had already had this conversation with Rarity a hundred times over. Though it was debatable as to whether it really had been Rarity’s clothes that had brought all the upper class ponies to Ponyville, it had certainly played a large part in it. “How many times have I had to say it Applejack? This could all be solved with a simple cash transaction. I could give you the money as a ‘charitable donation’ and you could get your farm back…along with your sister.” Rarity could easily spare the money after all. The inflow of the upper class had caused a massive increase in demand and prices for her outfits. She was arguably the richest pony in Ponyville, even including all of the new ponies that had moved there. “Don’t you dare mention her like that. My sister ain’t some dress to be bought. She’s family, and I’m gonna prove it. I don’t give a damn what the test’s said, it’s just like you said, a little cash transaction could fix it. Just a bribe and I could have Applebloom, and a bigger bribe and they could get her again. If I’m going to prove that those tests are wrong, I have to do it the honest way.” “What about keeping the farm going Applejack? I’ve seen the state of it and I know that there’s no way in Tartarus you’re keeping it up just off those apples. Now, I know it isn’t my business to intrude on another ponies private matters. But there’s a certain building for less…’fortunate’ stallions, that I might have heard a particular farmpony performed at.” Rarity hadn’t been talking particularly loudly, but Applejack still hushed her and whispered violently into her ear. “Don’t you dare tell anypony about that Rarity. Don’t you DARE!!! I won’t ask how you found out, but just promise me that nopony else hears a word of this. It doesn’t feel right having to do it Rarity, but I have to. I just can’t tell you why…Please Rarity, just forget about trying to help me.” “What about keeping your secret?” “Except for that. If I so much as suspect that you’ve told Twi’ or any of the others about it then you’ll be in for it. I don’t care how much money you have or how friendly you are with those fancy ponies, if word of that gets out, you’re a dead mare.” As Applejack had been talking she had subconsciously been advancing on the unicorn, who had in turn been backed against a wall and even then was having to lean back to avoid contact with the earth pony. Despite her position, Rarity smirked. “I’ll keep your secret Applejack, but if you can’t find a way out of your problems soon enough then I won’t be the dead mare of the two of us.” Applejack backed away from Rarity with a scowl, the unicorn promptly turning to follow her friends into the Spa. As the unicorn disappeared from sight, Applejack let the tears well up in her eyes before blinking and dashing them away. She spoke to herself; her words barely even a whisper. “What have I become?”