Author's Notes:
Thanks to Deadinlight for beta-reading and helping me edit
Chapter Six Part Two: The Story of the Past Part Two
~ ~ ~
I knew magic was powerful, but the power I found in those spells… Was nothing compared to the power I felt when I was with my friends. I remember a lecture Princess Celestia once gave about the magic of friendship, and I think she was right, but to protect my friends I have to leave. Forgive me Silver Hoof, forgive me Shade Hair, all of you, please forgive me...
~ ~ ~
The Mare that would be known as Shadow Eyes,, then known as Bright Star trotted through the halls of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, chatting happily with her friends as they talked about the test they had just finished taking, Professor Lightbulb had pulled her aside right after class, praising her innate skill in magic, especially for not having a cutie mark in it, or for that matter any cutie mark on her flank, her friends always joked that one day she would wake up with a cutie mark for magic or something similar, or if they were trying to be especially funny, a cutie mark for janitorial work, it always managed to get a chuckle out of her, truth be told, she didn’t care about her cutie mark or lack thereof, she was here with her friends, she was heir to a noble house, and she had a date in two nights with a colt who seemed so nervous as he tried to ask her out she had to accept, the poor colt nearly fainted right there.
“Bright Star! Did you hear? Princess Celestia may be picking a personal student! I heard the professors talking about you being a shoe in for the position!” said Glimmer Heart as she ran up to the group panting heavily, she was a heavy set unicorn with pink fur and red mane/tail.
“Really?!” asked Bright Star excited it wasn’t often that one heard news like this, and her only rival at the school was a young filly, barely old enough to come to the school, she was worried that such a position would pass her over in favor of the younger filly who obviously had great potential still, as her own window for any remarkable growth was drawing to a close as she grew closer to adulthood, she was sixteen, she needed to-
“Hey there Bright Star, hows about you and I-”
“Not interested, Heavy Heart. Besides, I already have a date this weekend, Silver Hoof asked me already” said Bright Star as she pushed the athletic stallion out of the way.
“How’d you know it was me?”
“I don’t need eyes to see Heavy, and Elysium help you if you try anything with my friends, I heard what you did with those other mares you dated, and I have no interest in having one of my friends become just another conquest of yours” snapped Bright Star her horn illuminated for a moment revealing the magic running through it. Heavy Heart placed a hoof to his chest feigning a wound.
“You wound me, fair filly, I would never do such a thing” he said and Bright Star whirled around to face him.
“I don’t care what you have to say, I have seen and heard of how you treat fillies all the time, Heavy, and I would never go out with you, if you were the last stallion on Equis, now if you would, leave me and my friends alone!” shouted the young mare and Heavy Heart took a step back in surprise before getting an angry look on his face and got muzzle to muzzle with the smaller pony and was about to say something when Professor Gem walked out of her classroom.
“I know you aren’t bothering these fillies, are you Heavy Heart? Do I need to call your mother?” asked the full grown mare as her horn sparked ready to break apart the fight if it came to blows, more for Heavy Heart’s sake than Bright Star’s because that mare was the top of her class and was looked ready to tear the young colt apart…
- - -
It was later that night when everypony else had gone to bed that Bright Star was found in the library pouring over some books of questionable content, “Dark Arts and Their Applications” and “Is There Such Thing as Dark Magic?” were two such books known to have the theories of dark magic in them, and for a mare as skilled as Bright Star, theory was all she needed. Not realizing it her flank was shining with a steady light as she studied the theories with interest. She never understood how any spell could be considered dark magic, wasn’t all magic about intent? Soon her horn was bubbling with purple/green bubbles as she summoned a dark crystal out of nothing. She used another spell to erase the crystal from existence, wiping the evidence of her magic use out of existence as well, leaving only a small puff of smoke that quickly dissipated. Finally noticing the glow on her flank she turned to it but as soon as she did it disappeared and the flank was still blank and she pouted. Here she was, a nearly full grown mare, and she still didn’t have a cutie mark, but if her talent lay in using what others called dark magic… Did she really want her cutie mark? A mark that would tell the world she was a Tenebrosus Magus? That was a life sentence in the Crystal Mines underneath Canterlot, if she was lucky to be captured alive, a death sentence if she so much as used a spell against the guards that would undoubtedly be after her if her cutie mark was something that represented “dark magic…”
- - -
The Next morning was the beginning of the weekend and Bright Star beamed happily as Silver Hoof, the nerdish colt that had asked her out came trotting up to the door of her home, her father answering the door as she made her way downstairs only to frown at her father who was doing his best, and succeeding to make the poor colt uncomfortable about dating his only daughter.
“Daddy! Please don’t scare away the only decent colt at my school with enough guts to ask me out!” said Bright Star and her father, Gold Star, looked abashed at that.
“But sweetie, surely many” he shuttered, “colts and mares have asked you out?”
“Sure they have, but a lot of them are assholes”
“Bright Star!”
“What daddy? They are!”
“What about that colt Heavy Heart? He is a likeable colt”
“Likeable? Not really, he would just add me to his conquest list, and I am not that kind of mare, and I don’t plan on being a notch on his bedpost” at that Gold Star clenched his jaw, Heavy Heart had been over earlier before his daughter had awoken and shared with him a story that Silver Hoof was a pony that used mares for pleasure and used his nerdish charms to get them to trust him before using them and leaving them crying about being used while he went on to the next. However his daughter was saying it was actually Heavy Heart that used mares for that purpose…
- - -
As Silver Hoof and Bright Star were making their way to the theaters, they chatted about nonsensical things, and the mare giggled as Silver Hoof made a rather corny joke about the mailmare and the milkmare and delivering things, not that she was actually listening to his jokes.
“Um… If you don’t mind why-?”
“Why did I accept you asking me out? I wasn’t kidding when I told daddy that you were the only decent colt to have the guts to ask me out, I may not be as high on the totem pole as some noble heirs, but I am the best in the school, and that intimidates some ponies. It doesn’t hurt that you are cute” said the blind mare and Silver Hoof scuffed the ground nervously before rushing back up to the mare, he had been a little stunned by her exclamation…