//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Hatred Denied // Story: Line Space facing the Mirrored Foe // by Line Space //------------------------------// Chapter 6: Hatred Denied “Well, I guess I should make sure I can still do that banishment spell for the mirror pool,” Twilight said to herself as she walked away from Fluttershy and the open window. “It will be the easiest way to deal with him after all. To think, a mind created out of magic to only have anger. I wonder if the Princess has ever heard of such a thing?” As Twilight mused to herself a black and maroon head tilted closer to the window straining to hear if she said anything else. Red Pen had been waiting here because it would allow him to jump on Line Space as he left the library. Now though, having heard what he had through the open window just above Fluttershy, he had to stay. And think. Think what though!? Just thinking about Line Space made him furious and now that foolish little colt thought he could be rid of him? That this silly little Twilight could give him a key to victory? Red Pen shook his head angrily. There was more to this, something about this spell that chilled him to his core. He needed to learn something but that meant putting off his anger, an anger that so far had given him pleasure. Red Pen almost yelled as he began stomping out of the shadows of the library. As he trotted away he bumped into an orange-haired pony with carrots for her cutie mark. She cried out as she fell and Red Pen began to smile. As she opened her mouth to speak he turned a vicious glare on her, quickly silencing whatever complaint she had. She got up and began galloping away. Red Pen was tempted to go after her, a way to vent his frustrations. That would have to wait though and his mood worsened as he went through town. Finally, once he had regained some control of his anger a little, he grabbed a hold of someone and asked him the best question he had come up with so far. “Where is a school?” ……………………….. Red Pen stared with his mouth gaping as he looked down at the school. He saw little fillies and tiny colts running around, laughing and playing. He was revolted at the friendliness he was watching. He took a few deep breaths and trotted down looking for a pink mare with three smiling flowers as her cutie mark. As he reached the school yard only a few of the young fillies and colts took notice of him. However he noticed that they were pointing and whispering as he walked into the yard. He restrained himself from casting his glare on any of them since the children he had scared away before had made a ruckus and he needed something here. “Hey, why do you look so mad?” Red Pen turned and found a young pegasus with spiky purple hair and an orange coat. He took a deep breath and did his best to put on a neutral expression. Bored if possible. “Well little filly, I am looking-” Red Pen began before her laughter cut him off mid way through his sentence. He found himself getting angrier by the moment and he hated having to control himself. “And what are you laughing at, little filly,” he said as politely as he could. “Your face. You look like you just smelled something terrible. Hehehehehe. By the way my names not little filly, it’s Scootaloo,” Scootaloo said rolling on the ground trying to contain her laughter. Red Pen sighed and his face took up an annoyed expression that was far more natural. “Could you please tell me where your teacher is? A miss-” “Hey you look kinda like Zeckora. Or at least your stripes.” A voice from behind interrupted him. He turned to find himself face to face with a white filly whose horn was far smaller than the older unicorns in town had been. Wrestling with his rage he opened his mouth to speak at the same time Scootaloo started. “You know you’re right. Maybe he’s related to Zeckora and he’s a zebra too? How cool would that be.” “How could he be related to Zeckora? He has the same kind of stripes she does but his color scheme’s completely different.” “Yeah but so is Twilight and Shining Armor’s and their still related. He could totally be related to Zeckora.” “Enough of your babbling,” Red Pen growled at them. “ I have never met a Zeckora and I don’t know what a zebra is. Now where is your teacher?” Red Pen stood in front of the three fillies his chest heaving with rage. The two looked back at him with confused and mildly shocked expressions on their faces. Them a voice behind him spoke up. “Hey, its a zebra!” He turned his head to look at the newest arrival and opened his mouth knowing what was coming. He wasn’t sure how he knew, he just knew he had to say something before- “He’s not a zebra. He just said he doesn’t know what one is Applebloom,” Scootaloo replied. “But that doesn’t make any sense. His stripes look just like Zeckora’s. Sweetiebelle, you have an eye for these things you agree right,” the newcomer whose name was apparently Applebloom asked the white one. “That’s what I said. Now that I think about it though, his pattern looks a lot cooler then Zeckora’s,”Sweetiebelle responded with. “No way. Rainbow Dash looks cool, he looks, what’s the word. Like he’s trying to frighten us. Intimidating, maybe evil….,” Scootaloo started using all sorts of words trying to find the right word to describe Red Pen. He was currently trying to keep himself from hurting them. Controlling himself was difficult but he needed this Cheerilee to help him or he could be in trouble when Line Space and Twilight came after him. “I think the word you girls are looking for is sinister,” a pleasant voice said from around the school building. The owner of the voice, a pink mare with a white and pink mane came around the corner of the school. She must have heard them talking from the front of the schoolhouse. “But why in the world would you be going through all of those… nasty adjectives.”Cheerilee’s voice died to a whisper as she spotted Red Pen. Fear filled her eyes and she started to tremble. Her eyes went straight to the three fillies at his feet and her eyes went even wider in fear. Red Pen found himself smiling. The fear in her eyes told him three things. One, that she probably knew more about him then he himself knew. Two, that he wasn’t going to have to worry about suppressing his cruelty since he already saw fear. Lastly, he already had some leverage. “Hello there Miss Cheerilee. I thought an old friend could come talk to you. I was hoping to keep my visit a surprise from,” he paused now glancing at some stallions looking down on the playground, “my other old friends.” “I’m sorry but right now I need to be watching the kids so I can’t really talk.” Miss Cheerilee said, forcing a smile on her face. “Oh, I can help you with that. Speaking of which-,” Red Pen said as he reached behind to where Scootaloo and friends were playing and pulled her over. Her eyes turned up at him as he began to grin and pull her in front of him. “-I can help with that. You know Scootaloo you need to be careful when you run around like that.” Red Pen tugged at one of her wings until it was stretched out and she squeaked in pain. “Don’t do that.” “If you’re not careful though you could break these fragile little wings.” He pulled out one of her feathers letting go of the extended wing. She clamped her wings to her sides and her eyes went wide at the thought. Her mind was elsewhere so Red Pen brought the feather’s quill dangerously close to her eye. “Or you might get a little too rough with your friends and lose an eyeball. “Enough!” Cheerilee said keeping her voice low but fear making it shrill. “Scootaloo, please run off now. Me and my.. friend need to have a short talk.” “Oh, well I don’t see why Scootaloo can’t stay for our conversation. Unless she’s too small for our grown up conversation.” “No way. I can stick around. I promise. Oh man I wonder if you talk about the same kind of awesome things RainbowDash does?” Scootaloo was certainly excited. He had said it on impulse. Then again, his instincts seemed to be doing him well so far. He was excited and just generally gleeful about all this. Blackmail and possible maiming. Not to mention there was the look on Cheerilee’s face that was pure gold. “Yes, I wonder what we’ll be talking about too Scootaloo,” Cheerilee said as she seemed to slump. Red Pen’s grin grew even wider seeing her defeated. “First, I must ask if you remember that momentous first day we met? I want to do a book on my own life and want multiple people’s perspective on big events I had with them.” Red Pen asked not liking the scrunched up look her face took after he finished. He wanted to see her in dismay. “So you actually want to talk. You only ever…. worked with whoever you… needed and then left.” “Sounds perfect. That doesn’t tell me what happened when we first met though. Does it Scootaloo?” Red Pen said as he rolled the feather in his hoof as he looked back down at the little filly as her face too scrunched up in thought. “What did you use to work on and why did you leave afterwards? Sounds like you didn’t see people terribly often.” Scootaloo asked this looking up at Red Pen and he quickly looked away from the innocent little eyes. Why did that concept seem to bother him. That bad feeling from attacking Line Space was back and he knew he would get someone for it. “He didn’t,” Cheerilee said recognizing the look in Red Pen’s eyes. “He usually stayed where he was but other ponies would do something and he would do a…. project. By the end of the project he would be satisfied that what needed to happen had happened and he would slip away again.” “Didn’t anyone ever try to be his friend cause that sounds really lonely,” the little filly between his front hooves said. Red Pen didn’t dare look down for the sake of not seeing those eyes again. “Not important. I do however have a bit of real business in town. Who exactly is this Twilight Sparkle?” Cheerilee answered suspiciously, “Twilight Sparkle is the Princess’ personal student and the probably the strongest unicorn in Equestria.” “Yeah and she does all these awesome things with her friends like RainbowDash and AppleJack.” “Is this AppleJack your friend Applebloom’s sister by chance?” Red Pen grinning. Cheerilee quickly stepped in. “Yes and she is one of the strongest mares in town and her brother IS the strongest stallion in town. Rainbowdash is-” “Awesome. She can fly so fast as to cause a sonic rainboom,” Scootaloo interjected. Red Pen’s face contorted. “She can what?” “She causes this ring of rainbow colors and then has one trail her. To do it she has to fly faster than any other pegasus has ever done before though.” Red Pen’s jaw dropped and Cheerilee got a smug look on her face that caused it to shoot back up. “Alright then. Last question. So what exactly is the mirror pool?” Cheerilee’s eyes went wide as she realized what had happened and knew she could not let him know what Twilight was going to do. For the first time since the conversation started though, Scootaloo said something that Red Pen wanted to hear. “Uuuuugh. Pinkie Pie didn’t use it again did she.” “Scootaloo stop talking,” Cheerilee said quickly her eyes wide with panic. Red Pen moved the quill closer to Scootaloo’s eye again as his grin finally returned. “No. Please Scootaloo, continue.” The young filly looked at the two older ponies and for some reason she felt like all she wanted to do was run from the looks the two were giving each other. Her teacher looked both scared and angry while this new guy looked happy but a strange kind of happy that she hadn’t seen before. Maybe the story would make this feeling go away. “Well, its not as awesome as a RainbowDash story but you see, Pinkie used this nursery rhyme about a pond to clone herself. She did it once and then again and again until there was this massive army of Pinkie clones. They came into town and wrecked everything. Rainbow tried to stop them but it was just too much for a pony even as awesome as her to stop. Twilight gathered them all into the town hall to watch paint dry. It was a trap though and as each Pinkie looked away she blasted them with a spell she found in a book about the mirror pool that sent them back to the mirror pool. When it was all done only the real Pinkie was left standing.” Scootaloo said the story with varying levels of energy and jumped up a little as she finished it. Red Pen looked up at Cheerilee grinning triumphantly and was delighted at the look of dismay that was on her face. Regardless of the rest of the conversation, most of which was useless chatter, that was the piece of info that could tip things his way. He now knew what their plan was and had a few hours at least to find a way to counter that blasted spell. He wondered if he should do something to the little filly but on second thought, she had been rather helpful and he was certainly happy enough. “Run along now Scootaloo but remember, be careful. After all, little pegasi are such fragile things.” “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m way too awesome to get hurt.” The two watched as she ran off to play with the other two. Slowly, Cheerilee turned her head back to Red Pen and his triumphant smile. He walked up close to her and pressed his mouth to her ear. Whispering with his voice dripping with malice, he said “Keep a close eye on her. If I even think you told somepony that I’m out and about or what you told me I will be back to do a project with that little filly. Or maybe one of her friends.” Cheerilee whispered back her voice as steady as she could make it. “You don’t have to do this Red Pen. You aren’t trapped and bound to Line Space’s anger anymore, you can have your own life.” “It is way too much fun watching good little mares like you squirm in front of me, powerless and afraid, to ever stop living like this. Satisfying hate and rage is so much nicer than trying to please others,” Red Pen said stepping away to look at her eye. They were filled with anger but also something else. It was that same look Scootaloo had given him when she had talked about friends. Now Red Pen realized what it was. She pitied him! He turned away and began trotting away seething at the very idea. Much later he wondered why he hadn’t hurt her for pitying him and vowed to get her for it later.