//------------------------------// // Ch.1 - The Beginning - Pt.3 - Who and Why? // Story: Rising of Destruction // by Ivo //------------------------------// Chapter 1 – The Beginning Part 3 - Who and Why? The door was closed, the moon high in the sky and the dark twilight, created by the closed curtains, was the perfect overture for the sinister symphony that was going to be played. Peaceful regular breaths, coming from a harmonious sleep, were the first notes in its score of dissonance and pain. A devilish smirk, a glowing horn, a levitating book and the dark ones within…everything was perfect! Every single instrument of its demonial orchestra was ready to play its part! The unknown giggled in a thrill of anticipation. The unicorn chose its victim very carefully. Well, in the end, it had had only two possibilities if it wanted to weaken Twilights´ mind. Sure, the unknown could simply murder one of the other students to strengthen their powers. But Twilight was an unbelievable great power source! With her, the dark ones would straighten even faster and would be ready for their resurrection, immediately! It was one death for hundreds! How generous I am! it thought smirking. But her mind was still too strong for them, so the unicorn had to weaken it! And how could it do this better than murdering one of her best friends? Anyway, Twilights´ friend in the bed in front of the unknown had no idea that its last hour had begun. The victim was ready to scream its mind and life out of its body and to fit its beautiful agonized cries into the dark hymn. Well, time to turn the music up!, the unknown thought, raised its hooves and intensified the glow of its horn. Shortly after that, a blue glimmer covered the door, the ceiling, the window – everything in the small chamber. The spell of quietness that prevented every single noise from escaping out of the room was ready. Now, the unknown opened the book. And here are the musicians! The unicorns´ horn glowed more intense again. After that, the book in front of it glowed in a faint dark light. It smirked even wider when the dark ones left the book in a thin dark tendril and wiggled straight to the bed. Finally, they reached their victim and, like smoke, it inhaled them. A short cough announced the interesting part of the dissonant composition. This time, nothing would go wrong! This time, they would break their victims´ mind! There was no doubt! Sure, Twilights´ friends had both strong minds, but this one should be the perfect choice! Strong and animated, but weak and helpless at the same time! The first few moments, nothing happened, but then, there was a short twitch in the eyes of the pony in the bed. Soon, it slightly shivered with fear. They began! The dark unicorn grinned even wider. This was a symphony just to his liking! More and more notes were played now. More and more sounds joined the dark hymn of death! After a while, a slight mutter came from the pony in the bed. “Who are you?” it asked low-voiced and scared. “Get away!” Then, the victim wriggled in its bed, dropping the blanket to the ground. “No! Please! Get away! Please!” Its muttering got a little bit louder. “No! Please! Have mercy!” “The only mercy they know is killing mercy, honey pie!” the unknown giggled. “Agonizingly slow killing mercy!” Now, tears appeared in the victims´ eyes and ran down its cheeks freely. It sobbed and wriggled more intense, started sweating and trembled in fear for its life. Crying turned into bawling now. They tormented their victim, destroyed its mind piece by piece. Mumbles turned into low screams and announced the nearing finale the dark unicorn was waiting for so longingly! Every little sound, every single scream, every sign of pain increased its ecstasy! And then, the victims´ mind broke. The grand finale started with an earsplitting shriek of pain that let the dark unicorn double-check the spell of quietness. The dark ones now flooded their victims´ body, absorbed its energy, blew its veins and destroyed its organs and everything inside the pony. Wide-eyed it screamed out its horrendous pain, heavily struggling in its bed, its face a mask of unbelievable pain and deadly terror! The dark unicorn only laughed, loud, cruel, sadistic, enjoying every single note of the deadly melody! It increased its laugh with every single scream, every teardrop, every sign of pain, every begging for mercy. Oh how it loved this composition! It savored every single second, every moment till the end. And the end came closer with every scream! The next and, hitherto, loudest scream told the unicorn that the dark ones now had destroyed nearly every single organ which wasn´t existential. And then, at the highest point of its laugh and its victims´ screams, the deadly hymn ended. One final last scream and then, the dark ones shredded their victims´ heart. Suddenly, there was silence. The screams still echoed in the dark unicorns´ ears and it enjoyed it! It looked over the victim. A thin trail of blood ran out of its muzzle. It looked at its murder wide-eyed, the horror of the last moments in its face. One last spark of life in its eyes asked: Why? The unknown unicorn just giggled devilish as the last spark in the golden eyes of Silverleaf disappeared… ______________________________________________________________________ It was a typical summer day…again. It was sunny, hot, not one single cloud in the sky…it was simply the perfect day for every outdoor activity! At four o´clock in the afternoon, the most students already had left the school pile and headed for the city or the great meadows of the school garden, fighting for the best places for picnicking. And also a trio of two ponies and one small purple dragon did so. “Well, let´s better check the list one last time. Eventually you forgot something.” Spike suggested while they were walking through the garden and heading for the city. He hauled a small handbarrow to transport the books he was going to get for his two companions. “In Bleachs´ case, I think, it wouldn´t be that problem. But I don´t want to hear your lament again, Twilight! You remember last time you forgot a book?” “Yes. And I´m sorry for that.” she replied smiling sheepishly. “Well, here we go: we have ‘Advanced Magic Part VIII – Magical Recirculation’, ‘Advanced Protective Spells Part III’, ‘The Legend of the last Guardian Part IV’, ‘The Chronicles of the Bearded Part X’ aaaaaand…” he frowned and looked amused at Twilight. “’The life of Robert Colterson’?” Bleach instantly laughed. “You haven´t any firewood anymore, I guess?” he quipped. “Then it´s really a good choice! That book burns very well!” Twilight narrowed her eyes and smirked at him. “As well as your saucy posters of Sapphire Shores and Filly Gaga would burn?” she hit back cocking an eyebrow. Bleach just giggled. “Touché!” “If you´re ready could we go back to topic?” the baby dragon asked impatiently. Both stopped necking each other and nodded. “I am missing nothing.” Twilight said. “Me neither.” Bleach added. Spike smiled and nodded. “All right! See ya later!” he said and off he went. Twilight and Bleach left alone. “So…what do we want to do?” Bleach asked. The day before, Silverleaf had mentioned that she was going to spend the day with her coltfriend Nevio, so they both could spend the afternoon together. “Oh, I don´t know…” as long as we do it together, everything is fine! she added silently. “Well, there are plentiful things we could do. We can go to a café or go window-shopping or go to that concert in the marketplace or…” “…or just take a walk through the park?” she asked. He smiled. “At your desire!” She smiled back and walked a little closer to him. Bleach lost himself in thoughts. He imagined the park with its small alleys, the colorful meadows, the deep blue lake, all the beauties of nature and, first of all, the beauty at his side! In his imagination, they both were alone between the trees and flowers, looking deep into each other’s eyes. “Twilight, I…I never dared to tell you, but…here we are and…Twilight, I…I love you…” She smiled wide happily, looking at him with her shining purple eyes. “I…I love you too, Bleach.” she said. And then her eyes closed and her lips came closer to his. He also closed his eyes, also moving his lips towards hers and… “Hey, look!” the voice of Twilight, the real Twilight, not the one in his mind, broke his daydream. He shook his head and needed a moment to find back to reality. The purple mare at his side was pointing at something in the far. Bleachs´ gaze followed her hoof and he saw… “Hey, isn´t that…” ______________________________________________________________________ Alone, the brown stallion walked along the way that led to the school pile. He looked worried. His gaze was absent, but his thoughts were focused on the things that were important. Well, there was only one ‘thing’ that was important for him at the moment. There was only one pony, he was thinking about, only the one mare, he was worrying about. He couldn´t tell, what exactly it was, but he had a misgiving. Silverleaf never was late! She would never break or forget an appointment! Especially if it had to do something with him! What if something happened to her? What if she had an accident! What if somepony kidnapped her! What if… he shook his head. You´re worrying too much, Nevio! Silverleafs´ friend thought for himself. You´ll see everything is fine! Maybe she is just a little bit sick. Maybe she just had to vomit and stays in her bed the day to rest, just like in her first weeks of pregnancy! Everything is fine! Don´t worry! You´ll see, soon you are a happy father of one or two cute little foals! The thought about that made him smile. First, he was totally shocked, when Silverleaf told him about her pregnancy. Sure, they thought about that before. They always talked about having a family with one or two little foals, but, in the moment she told him, it was just so…abruptly. But, in the end, he was just happy. His little world was perfect! The only thing missing at the moment was a small kiss from his beautiful Silverleaf!... Nevio never kissed her again… His perfect world was going to shatter… ______________________________________________________________________ “Nevio!” Bleach shouted for him. The absent look of the brown stallion disappeared and he looked around. He recognized Bleach and Twilight and trotted over to them. “Hey you two!” he greeted them. “Have you seen Silverleaf?” Both frowned and glanced at each other. “Won´t she met you at the station?” the purple mare asked. “Yes, but I searched at the whole station and in the proximity. No Silverleaf anywhere. I hope she´s all right. I´m very worried…” “I can well believe it.” Bleach said bland smiling and nodded. “Mind you, she´s pregnant. Needless to say, that you as father-to-be are worried about your filly and your foal. I think, it wouldn´t be different for me in your position and...” “Wait a second…You two know about her pregnancy? She promised me to keep it secretly to surprise you two when I´m back!” “Oh, don´t blame her!” Twilight calmed him sheepishly smiling. “We…kinda…found it out for ourselves. She didn´t tell us anything. We…” A shout behind them interrupted her. “Bleach! Twilight!” They turned around and saw… ”Dad?” Bleach asked confused. “What are you doing here? Shouldn´t you teach PE at this time?” The white stallion with the black surcoat trotted over to them, a blank look in his face. Bleach frowned even more. He knew his father enough to know: This isn´t a good omen. “And why in the name of Celestia are you wearing your uniform? You´re not in duty! You wear this only during protecting Celestia or at our training!” His gaze became a slight sad touch which stung Bleach a little bit. No, something definitely was wrong! “Hello Bleach. Twilight…Nevio…” there was slight pain when he spoke the last name. “I got…bad news for you…” “Bad news?” his son asked. I knew it! he thought grimly. “What is it?” added Twilight. “Is it…about…Silverleaf?” Nevio asked hesitantly and Bleachs´ father nodded. “It´s not easy for me to tell you…I hate being bringer of bad news, but…” “For God´s sake!” Bleach rolled his eyes impatiently. “Can you speak plain English, please?” His father looked at him. “I´m sorry, but…” he took a final breathe. “I am really in duty. Since this morning, to be exact. And not as a protector of the princess…” Bleachs´ eyes widened. There was only one single case an Auraknight was in duty besides protecting! The case when somepony got… “Who?” he asked fearing the answer. Oh, please in the name of all Equestria don´t say… “Silverleaf…” Bleachs´ heart skipped a beat. Then, he ran. He ran straight back to the school pile. He wanted to see it! He wanted to see this very very very bad joke! But then, he remembered that his father was never joking! Not in these things! But he wished he was! Just this once! Please! “Bleach!” Twilight and Nevio shouted behind him and followed him. “Wait for us! What does that all mean? BLEACH!” He didn´t stop. His father left alone. His head sank to the ground. It was much heavier than he thought it would be. A small tear appeared in his eye, slowly running down his cheek. “I´m sorry…” he whispered… ______________________________________________________________________ It was no joke! She lay in her bed, the golden eyes, once full of life, were opened wide. Her face was a mask of pain, enunciating the ineffable torment she underwent in her last moments of life. A thin trail of blood ran out of her mouth. Bleach closed his eyes, sat down and looked away, feeling tears coming up in his eyes. He tried to choke them back, tried to stay strong in the face of death and the dead pony in front of him. But the terrible fact, that this pony was since years one of his best friends, declared his defeat against the tears. He gave a short gasp and let them fall as they came. They ran down his cheeks, dropping to the ground beneath his hooves. After a while of silent crying, he looked around. Twilight sat at his side, pressing her face into his shoulder and had broken into a passion of tears, drenching his coat with them. He embraced her and slightly stroke through her mane, trying to comfort her. Silverleaf had been their best friend. They had done nearly everything together. And now, there was nothing they could do together anymore! No more fun together! No more laughing together! Nothing… And even more than himself and Twilight, it hurt Nevio. The brown stallion, who was, no, who had been Silverleafs coltfriend, was a wreck! He had gone down on the ground, was bawling inconsolably and cried out her name again and again. It was unbelievable painful for Bleach to see the usually so happy and buoyant stallion like this. His perfect world had been shattered in just one single moment. He lost everything that had been important for him! His tears wouldn´t dry fast. He had lost his filly, lost his love, lost his foal…and all just from one second to the next! New tears came up at the thought of that. It wasn´t only one life that had gone, no, it were two! Or, maybe, three! Nobody would ever know it! A few guards were around to keep the bystanders on distance. Some of the guards tried to comfort Nevio, but every try seemed to make it even worse for him. In front of the entrance to Silverleafs´ chamber stood two guards, motionless like statues as ever. “I´m sorry…” a deep voice beneath him said compassionately, but Bleach only shook his head. “It´s not your fault…no need to apologize…” he replied low-voiced. “I…just want to know…Why?” This was the question that was in his head the whole time since he saw her dead body. Why she had to die? What did she do to deserve this? Nothing! That was, what she did to deserve death! Nothing! She was one of the kindest souls he ever met in his life! Sure, sometimes she was a little bit cheeky, as bold as a brass, to be honest, but was that a reason to kill her? No, it wasn´t! The thoughts raised his anger. Inside of him, there was a strange mix of deep sadness, pain and unbelievable rage. “And, even more important: WHO?” he asked slightly trembling. Who would kill a soul as kind as Silverleaf? And, over and over: why? His father shook his head. “We can´t say at this moment. Were still perpetuating evidences, but, to be honest, there are not many of them.” Bleach said nothing to that. Murder was a rare crime in Equestria and in the majority of cases they were exactly involuntary ponyslaughter. Or the murder couldn’t bear his guilty conscience and handed himself in. But this case wasn´t like them, he felt it! Whoever murdered her; he or she tormented her and wanted to make her death as painful and horrible as possible! That was, at least, what Silverleafs´ eyes told him… “I also found some magical remains.” Now, Bleach was keen-eared. “Nothing very helpful, but…” “Can you show me?” he asked. His father nodded. “Okay, but don´t have any hope to find anything I hadn´t found yet.” To be honest, Bleach just wanted to do anything! He couldn´t just sit there crying and doing nothing to find Silverleafs´ murder! “Sorry that I have to steal you this shoulder.” he whispered in Twilights´ ear. She was still in his embrace, her head resting on his shoulder and her tears still streaming down her cheeks. Sobbing, she slowly looked up at him with watery purple eyes. He tried a slight comforting smile. “I just want to see if I can figure out what exactly happened to her, okay?” She nodded slightly, mumbling a low “Okay.” He shortly nuzzled her and then, he released her from his hug and rose to his hooves. “Try to calm Nevio a bit.” He said softly. “He needs somepony at his side now, okay? Misery loves company.” Twilight only nodded and trotted over to the brown stallion. Bleachs´ gaze rested at him. He blinked and changed his vision to aura-spectrum. It was just as he thought, but it shocked him slightly anyway. Nevios´ aura pulsated in a very dark blue, mixed with a deep black – the aura of a potential suicide victim! “Don´t worry. We´ll take care of him.” his father tried to assuage his sorrows about Nevio. “Come, I´ll show you, what I had found…” ______________________________________________________________________ She was right! He had to burn them! Or, at least, he had to trash them. He narrowed his eyes, inspecting the humps on the picture at the ceiling. Why did he ever like them? He always liked just one single mare out there! So why he had a poster, more specifically, a whole collection that only reflected a statue of porcelain perfection arisen from the flesh-worshiping society all around them? And why he directly placed it above his bed? He sighed and turned in his bed, averting his gaze from the poster of Sapphire Shores and her humps. This all really didn´t help him to dismiss his thoughts about today! There were too many things happened, too many sorrows he had. One of his best friends got murdered! There was no way to sleep! There was even no way to just sit still for ten minutes! The only thing there was, were the sorrows about the things, he saw this afternoon! Again, Bleach thought about the afternoon and the things he saw in Silverleafs´ chamber. The first thing, he had noticed when he had investigated her room with his aura-vision, had been the flowers all around. Well, this really had been nothing special. Silverleaf had been a florist. Of course, there had been many flowers in her room. Some of them had had faint pulsating magical glows inside. It had seemed to him, that she never had stopped trying to combine her magic with her flowers. The thought, that all the roses, violets, tulips, pinks and orchids soon will be just white lilies, depressed him a little bit. His thoughts went on, replaying the next detail, he had seen. There had been pieces of a faint blue glowing on the walls, the ceiling and everywhere he had looked at. He had token one of them with his magic and had levitated it in front of him to research its magical elements. In the end, he had found out, it had been remains of a spell of quietness. It must have been a very strong one to protect every noise from breaking out. Normally, a spell of quietness a student uses only decreased noises they´re making. Much affected by very passionately young couples and by several parties. Anyway, it had showed to him: Silverleafs´ murder had known, that she would scream in suffering and pain. He had known her death would be painful! Thinking about that raised his anger again and again! The next thing his father had showed to him had been a faint white magical shimmer near the entrance. He had squinted, but first, he hadn´t seen anything. But then he had noticed small white fluffs, wafting in the air. He also had inspected their magical elements. It had been a spell on the basis of time and space. He never had seen such a spell so he had asked his father. “It´s a teleportation-spell.” he had answered. “Seems to be the way the murder entered the room. I also found magical remains of that spell in the library. Looks like this had been his initial point. We also searched for some evidences there, but haven´t found anything yet.” After that, they had finished. That two spells had been the only spells, the murder had used. Bleach had looked over the room one last time. He had trotted over to Silverleafs´ dead body and sighing he had closed her eyes for the one last time, feeling new tears coming up. He just had stared at her dead body, saying goodbye to the colorless body in his aura-vision. In this moment, he had noticed two things: “Dad?” he asked for him and his father had trotted over to him, asking: “What is it? Have you found something interesting?” “I´m not sure…but have you recognized yet, that her body is colorless? I mean…shouldn´t there be her energy?” “You know that our energies vanish if we´re dying, don´t you?” his father had asked frowning. “Yeah, but not instantly, remember? Our aura disappears instantly with death, that´s true, but our magical energies need two to three days to vanish! At least, the energy of unicorns like her. An earth- or pegasuspony looses his magical energy in just one day, because they haven´t as much as we have and weren´t able to use it!” “You mean…” Bleach had nodded. “Something had absorbed her energy!” “And why?” Bleach had shrugged. “I don´t know. Isn´t that your job to figure that out?” His father only had sighed, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, there´s something other, I found.” he had said, pointing at Silverleafs´ muzzle. It had been hard, to see it, but there had been a very slight black shimmering smoke, coming out of her mouth and nose. If Bleach not had looked over her one last time, he never would´ve found it. His father had frowned. “What is that?” “I don´t know…it´s magical, but not familiar to me.” They both had token a part of the black magical remains and had inspected them. But no one of them had found out, what it had been. They had saved their remains of the black spell in two of the small crystals his father had used to save the other magical evidences. So they could research for the mysterious spell later without fearing, that it vanishes. Finally, they had left the room. Twilight and Nevio had already left the crime scene. Bleach hadn´t seen one of them. “I´ll launch an autopsy instantly.” Bleachs´ father then had said, turning back to normal-vision. “Whatever this black spell is, I´m sure it killed her from inside. So we may are able to say, what exactly killed her.” Bleach had nodded and had promised not to tell Twilight or Nevio. They wouldn´t have been very happy to hear about an autopsy for Silverleaf. After that, he had left to look for Twilight and Nevio, but he hadn´t found them, so he had gone to his chamber. And so, the story ended at the point, where he was now – in his bed. It was late at night now and he still found no way to sleep! His primary sorrow now was Twilight. Nevio, he at least found out, stayed the night in one of the empty chambers of the school, protected from himself by a few guards. Of course, also Silverleafs´ family had been informed yet. Bleach didn´t know their reaction, but he was sure, that there were tears right at this moment. And there was nothing he could do to bring relief to them! Nothing he could do, to find her murder! But there must be anything! He looked at the crystal his father gave him and sighed. If he at least would know, what spell this was! But he had to wait until tomorrow to ask Mrs. Bookheart for some books about old and black magic. He sighed again and his gaze wandered back to the poster above him. I really have to trash them! Maybe Twilight will help me to take some new photos for the wall! Maybe some photos of her…with the park as scene…or…Oh for God´s sake! He sat up in his bed, starring frustrated at the crystal with the black spell, changing to aura-vision. “What the hay are you? And what had you done with Silverleaf? And who had used you? And WHY?” he shouted at the crystal, of course without getting an answer. He sighed frustrated and got out of his bed. He opened his wardrobe and took the white surcoat and the belt with his daggers. He put them on and went to the door. If he can´t sleep, he at least could train a little bit for himself! Or just take some fresh air! Seethed with anger, he opened his door and had to squint instantly, protecting his eyes with his hoof and giving a short gasp of pain. “What the…” “Oh my, I´m sorry…” a mares´ voice said depressed. “Am I looking that bad?” Bleach blinked and changed back to his normal view. “What? Looking bad? No, no, everything is fine…Just forgotten to change my vision.” He shook his head and looked at the mare in front of him. “Whew…you are…bright!” he said slightly smiling. Twilights´ bright magical potency blinded him every time he saw it in the wrong spectrum. Gradually, he got used to it, if he was prepared. But he always hated it, when she surprised him like that. “Thank you…” she answered cheerless. Now he looked closer at her. Her eyes were bloodshot and watery. She had cried a lot, he guessed. “I guess you can´t sleep, too?” She nodded. “It´s just so…horrible! I just can´t stop thinking about her! We had done so much together, I…” she sighed. “I just can´t believe that she´s gone! That she´s never coming back, never hanging around with us anymore!” “Me neither.” he said, also sighing. “It feels just…I don´t know. I really don´t know what to feel at the moment. There´s so much, sadness, pain, rage, nostalgia, dejection, emptiness…” he broke himself. He could go on with this for hours. “I just want to know: Why?” Twilight said sadly. “Why does somepony murder her? Why does somepony kill an innocent soul like her? She wouldn´t have hurt a fly! She was always so kind, so gently, so amiable! And she was…she was…” she sobbed. Her eyes welled up with tears again. She tried to choke them back, but Bleach saw, it was useless. The only thing he could do, was putting his hooves around her. She pressed her head against his chest and the tears started rolling down her cheeks. “She was PREGNANT!” she cried out loud. “She was going to have a family! Who is killing an innocent filly that´s going to have a foal! Who would be so cruel? WHO? And why?” They sat there for a while. Bleach couldn´t tell, how long exactly he sat there on the floor in front of his door, holding a bitterly crying Twilight in his embrace. He didn´t say anything. He only held her tight and let her vent herself in a flood of tears, stroking gently through her mane just as he did it in the afternoon. As time drew on, her tears dried up. After that, she just sobbed for a while but soon, her sobbing died down. She looked up at him, starring in Bleachs´ ocean-eyes. She smiled slightly, one last tear running down her cheek. “Thank you.” she just said. “Feeling better now?” he asked softly and, to his delight, she nodded slightly and smiled a bit wider. “Yes. I think I just needed…this, I mean…having a good cry and…your embrace and all…” she slightly blushed in embarrassment. He smiled back, drying her last tear. “You´re welcome anytime!” She giggled low and blushed even more. He released her from his embrace and they both rose to their hooves again. She pawed the ground, sheepishly looking away from him. “So…I think…because we both can´t sleep and…well, I thought…I know, it´s late, but…” Bleach giggled. She looked so cute in her sheepishness! “…there is still a walk we have to take?” he finished her sentence. She smiled and nodded, looking back at him. “Are you…interested?” He gave a short laugh. “I am more than interested! It would be a pleasure for me!” And so, side by side, comforting each other with their togetherness, they went on their night walk… ______________________________________________________________________