Hatred is Magic

by smirker

Chapter 6

The next morning came and Twilight Sparkle's alarm clock went off, she woke up and got out of bed,

"Is Sunset Shimmer here yet?" Twilight Sparkle inquired, Spike and Starlight Glimmer shook their heads,

"Ugh, come on, Sunset Shimmer, what is taking you so long?" Twilight Sparkle complained, the mirror soon flashed a bright light and Sunset Shimmer appeared in her unicorn form,

"Twilight!" Sunset Shimmer hollered elatedly, she exclaimed as she almost fell since she stood upright on her hind legs, Starlight Glimmer caught her and set her down, she then hugged Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and Starlight Glimmer,

"Sorry I took so long, I had a ton of homework to do, and me and the others are busy talking about what to do next since we're going to be graduating soon." Sunset Shimmer explained,

"Wow, I guess you were busy after all." Starlight Glimmer remarked,

"Yeah, I was." Sunset Shimmer commented,

"We've been trying to find out who killed Queen Chrysalis, we have a suspect, but... things are starting to look like we got the wrong guy." Spike explained,

"I read it in Twilight's letter, I'm ready to see his memories and see if he's the culprit or not." Sunset Shimmer responded, Spike then burped out fire and had a letter. He opened the letter and read it,

"It's from Princess Celestia, she and Princess Luna are going to visit the changelings now, they're also going to use that opportunity to ask King Thorax on the other changelings that have been killed just like Chrysalis in order to learn how long this has been going on." Spike explained,

"Oh, good, come on, Sunset, let's go see Lemon Lime." Twilight Sparkle spoke, and she and Sunset Shimmer trotted to the train and met up with her five friends,

"Oh, Sunset, darling, it's nice to finally meet you again." Rarity spoke,

"Hey, guys, I've been busy with school and my future, I still don't know what to do after I graduate." Sunset Shimmer responded,

"You can always come back here and live with us." Rainbow Dash suggested,

"That would be nice, but there are magic problems in the world I'm in, I have friends there, too, I'd miss them as much as they would miss me if I moved back here." Sunset Shimmer replied,

"Ooh, Sunset Shimmer Returns Party!" Pinkie Pie hollered while throwing her front legs up and her party cannon went off with confetti falling everywhere,

"Thanks, but I plan to keep living in the other world." Sunset Shimmer reminded,

"Well, you're always welcome to come here, Sunset, even though we had a rocky start." Applejack said,

"Thanks, and I'm not like that anymore." Sunset Shimmer commented,

"How's Ray doing?" Fluttershy asked,

"He's great, that world's version of yourself is looking after him right now." Sunset Shimmer answered, the train then came,

"Okay, let's go see Lemon Lime." Twilight Sparkle stated, and they boarded the train and went to Canterlot.

---

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna arrived at the Hive and stepped out of their carriages, they walked forward and the changelings stood to the sides with Thorax and Pharynx standing across from them,

"Welcome, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, we have been waiting for your arrivals." King Thorax said,

"Thank you, we would like to apologize for someone of our kind killing your people, Luna and I are here to make amends and let you all know that we and the other ponies do not approve of their behavior." Princess Celestia responded,

"Good, that's a relief to us, the changeling kids were worried that you two supported this pony killing us." King Thorax stated,

"What? Most definitely not, we are a land of friendship and forgiveness, I understand being angry and wishing for retaliation, but this is going too far, we would never approve of murder, let alone of another kind's ruler." Princess Luna answered,

"We'll let our kids know that you all don't approve, but until we do, they think you two and Princess Cadence are supporting this killer and giving him the location of the changelings that went into hiding in Equestria." Pharynx explained,

"What? We certainly aren't doing that, and Princess Cadence would never do that, she's friends with you all alongside Shining Armor and Flurry Heart, she wouldn't support a changeling killer in the slightest." Princess Celestia answered,

"And how do you prove that to the kids that don't believe you?" Pharynx questioned,

"We brought a gift from Equestria as a symbol of our apologies and friendship, our friends in the Crystal Empire made it, this crystal will is empowered by love and will put a defensive barrier around your home to protect you all from invasions as long as there is love in the hive." Princess Celestia explained, and she and Princess Luna used their telekinesis to give it to the changelings. The pink heart-shaped crystal sensed the love in the Hive and it glowed a bright pink, it created a pink barrier around the Hive and it turned invisible,

"There, now your hive has an extra layer of protection." Princess Luna said,

"Thank you, I hope this will be enough to convince the kids." King Thorax replied,

"Wait, Thorax, there's another reason why we're here, Luna and I would like to know about the other changelings that have been killed by this person using hatred as magic and where their bodies were found." Princess Celestia stated,

"Very well, this way." King Thorax responded, and he and Pharynx led Princess Celestia and Princess Luna into the hive.

---

King Thorax and Pharynx led Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to their quarters and showed them a map that had red circles and dates on them,

"This is where the dead changelings were reported to be found, there's two dates for each one, one's when the body was found, and the other's their estimated time of death according to our doctors." King Thorax explained,

"Let's see here... look, the earliest one reported was shortly after we defended Canterlot, it's in the woods to the north of Canterlot, too." Princess Luna spoke,

"Yes, when we retreated, that's when this first report of this person using hatred in their magic to kill us came in, they were all mostly the same, either blasted with hatred blasts or cut by swords enchanted with hatred magic, the amount of deaths increased after I became king, too." King Thorax explained,

"Have you noticed a pattern in these deaths? Like a certain time or day of the week or year?" Princess Celestia inquired,

"No, each one was killed on a random day of the year, but one thing that caught our attentions was when we looked at the recent deaths, we found these." Pharynx responded, and he got maps with writings on them. The two princesses looked and saw notes on places where Equestria had little to no defense,

"It looks like... they were planning to invade." Princess Celestia stated,

"Yes, but keep looking at the map." Pharynx ordered, and they did. They read the notes and noticed the changelings were planning to free Chrysalis from her stone prison and all of the changelings loyal to Chrysalis were going to march to the Hive and launch an assault and try to overthrow King Thorax, and then lead another invasion to Equestria and overthrow the princesses,

"They... were planning another invasion." Princess Luna said,

"Yes, but they were going to try to take this place over first, after Pharynx and I were overthrown, they were going to go after you guys next." King Thorax replied,

"We think this is why this person is killing our species, but every changeling we have found dead were those who left the Hive and were still loyal to Chrysalis." Pharynx added,

"What about those loyal to you?" Princess Luna inquired,

"They haven't been targeted by the killer." King Thorax answered, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna looked at one another,

"One more thing, this might shock you." Pharynx said, and he left and came back with three changelings. The princess looked at their corpses and saw dark green slash marks on one, but their eyes' widened when they saw the slash marks on the other two corpses were a bright red-orange,

"It's... a different color." Princess Celestia stated,

"Correct, we think there's two killers, this red-orange magic was only found at two other areas." Pharynx responded,

"Not only that, a lot of the dead changelings we found were buried, so we know the killers are moving the bodies from where they killed them." King Thorax said,

"Thank you for letting us know, Thorax, we will head back to Canterlot now and let Twilight know." Princess Celestia stated, and she and Princess Luna walked back. They went back into their carriages and royal guard Pegasi flew to them and landed,

"Your Highness, more dead changelings have been found this morning." a mare reported,

"Where?" Princess Celestia inquired,

"To the easternmost area of Equestria, time of death has been estimated to be yesterday evening." the mare answered, the princess' jaws dropped,

"Get the bodies and bring them here at once." Princess Celestia ordered,

"Yes, Your Highness." the mare responded, and the royal guards flew away while Princess Celestia and Princess Luna entered their carriages and they flew back to Canterlot.

---

Twilight Sparkle and her friends arrived back into Canterlot and went to the interrogation room, Lemon Lime was brought in by the royal guards and seated,

"Alright, Lemon Lime, this is Sunset Shimmer, she's going to look into your memories today in hopes of uncovering any more mysteries in the deaths of Chrysalis and the changelings." Twilight Sparkle explained,

"You're not going to find anything." Lemon Lime replied,

"We'll see about that." Twilight Sparkle said,

"Okay, Lemon Lime, just relax a little, this shouldn't take long." Sunset Shimmer spoke, and she grabbed Lemon Lime's front leg to see his memories. She watched and saw Lemon Lime as a colt and his parents teaching him to hate changelings, she then saw a vision of him as a teenager teaching himself how to use swords, the vision then changed to him seeing the news on Chrysalis' invasion of Canterlot being thwarted,

"Good, serve those changelings right, my parents were right about them, they really are a bunch of violent, unfriendly, emotion feeding invaders after all." Lemon Lime commented, the vision then changed and he saw changelings in a line and a Pegasus mare who was a royal guard,

"What? I have to serve the changelings the fruits I grow?" Lemon Lime questioned,

"Yes, since Queen Chrysalis has been overthrown and its new ruler is a friend of Princess Twilight, Princess Cadence, and Spike, we are allowing the changelings into Equestria in hopes of establishing a good relationship with them." the mare responded, Lemon Lime growled,

"Lemon Lime, if you do not allow them to buy your fruit, I will have to report you to the law." the mare warned, Lemon Lime let out an annoyed groan while the royal guard flew away, the vision then changed to Lemon Lime reading a newspaper, he saw news about the School of Friendship and noticed Ocellus in the picture, he crumbled up the newspaper and threw it onto the ground. The visions ended and Sunset Shimmer let go of Lemon Lime's hoof, she noticed Twilight Sparkle cast a screen to see what she was seeing,

"Nope, there's no memory of him killing Chrysalis or changelings." Sunset Shimmer stated,

"Is that enough to prove I'm not the killer?" Lemon Lime questioned,

"I say we go into his memories again." Pinkie Pie suggested,

"No, that's not going to work, we just literally saw everything that motivates him, and I didn't see him killing any changelings, so it's likely he's not the culprit." Sunset Shimmer responded,

"See, there you go, now let me free." Lemon Lime ordered,

"Hold on, Lemon Lime, not until we have official confirmation you're not the killer." Twilight Sparkle replied, Lemon Lime let out a groan. Running was heard and two Pegasus royal guard mares entered,

"Princess Twilight, more changelings were found dead earlier this morning to the east of Equestria." one mare reported, everybody became speechless,

"Was it the same as Chrysalis and the changelings killed shortly after her?" Twilight Sparkle asked,

"Yes, we have pictures here." the other mare answered and she showed a picture of three dead changelings, Pinkie Pie gasped while Rarity exclaimed when they saw one dead changeling was a child, Fluttershy turned away and cried with her front hoofs over her face. Twilight Sparkle looked and saw dark green slash marks on their bodies,

"Wow, I'm sorry to say this, everypony, but the killer's still out there, this means Lemon Lime's innocent." Twilight Sparkle said,

"Yes! Now let me go." Lemon Lime cheered,

"Lemon Lime, you're still guilty of discrimination on how you treat your changeling customers, you have to serve time for that." one royal guard mare reminded,

"Oh." Lemon Lime said,

"Come on, Lemon Lime, back to your cell, you'll be taken to court tomorrow." the other royal guard mare said, and he was escorted out of the room. Twilight Sparkle and her friends stood in the room and just looked forward,

"So... what do we do now?" Rainbow Dash asked,

"We continue investigating, but if we're lucky, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will be back soon." Twilight Sparkle responded,

"But Lemon Lime and the other three suspects we interrogated are the only ponies with dark green magic auras, and there ain't any other ponies in Equestria with that color for their magic aura." Applejack reminded,

"I know, but we must be missing something, it's also possible Princess Celestia missed a unicorn with dark green magic." Twilight Sparkle answered,

"Maybe somepony is traveling outside Equestria?" Fluttershy suggested,

"It's possible, and Princess Celestia could've missed that unicorn because of that." Twilight Sparkle answered,

"Well, whatever the reason, Ah think we're done here and we should head back." Applejack said,

"I agree we're done here for now, but let's wait until Princess Celestia and Princess Luna get back." Twilight Sparkle responded, and they all headed outside.

---

Twilight Sparkle and her friends waited outside and Princess Celestia's and Princess Luna's carriages arrived a few minutes later, they landed and the two got out of their carriages. They walked over to Twilight Sparkle and her friends,

"I assume you all finished interrogating Lemon Lime." Princess Celestia said,

"Yup, turned out he wasn't the culprit, three more changelings were reported dead apparently." Applejack explained,

"So you all have heard already, we also asked King Thorax about the previous cases, what we found out was shocking." Princess Luna stated,

"Like what?" Rainbow Dash inquired,

"Well, firstly, how long this has been going on, it turns out the killings started shortly after we repelled Chrysalis and her changelings at Canterlot." Princess Luna responded, Twilight Sparkle and her friends gasped,

"You mean it's been going on for that long?!" Rainbow Dash asked,

"Yes, we didn't know because the changelings found the bodies and took them back to the Hive before their deaths were even reported." Princess Celestia responded,

"That's not all, King Thorax also showed us that all of the changelings who have been killed were still loyal to Queen Chrysalis, they were all planning to free Chrysalis from her stone prison, then invade and attack the Hive, and then invade our country again after overthrowing Thorax." Princess Luna added,

"Wow, talk about persistent." Sunset Shimmer responded,

"Indeed, it seems the changelings weren't ready to give up yet after all." Rarity commented,

"We have one more thing to show you all, this one is going to shock all of you." Princess Celestia spoke, and she made a screen come up with her magic and the mares looked. They saw pictures of changeling corpses in the hive, they gasped when they saw some of the corpses had bright red-orange slash marks on their bodies while others had the usual dark green slash marks. Princess Celestia stopped casting the spell and the screen disappeared,

"Now you all see, some of the dead changelings have bright red-orange slash marks." Princess Celestia commented,

"You mean... there's two of them?!" Rainbow Dash blurted,

"I hate to say this, but it seems there is." Princess Celestia answered,

"How many ponies in Equestria have a bright reddish orange aura?" Pinkie Pie asked,

"Quite a lot, it'd take a while to round them all up and begin interrogating them." Princess Luna answered,

"I don't think that's a good idea, I say we just focus on finding the culprit with the dark green magic, maybe that person will lead us to one with the bright red-orange magic." Twilight Sparkle suggested,

"I agree, gathering all of the ponies who have bright red-orange magic auras would take days, too, I think Twilight's way would be much faster." Princess Celestia concurred,

"What are you going to do now, Princess Celestia?" Sunset Shimmer asked,

"I'm going to contact Tempest Shadow and other ponies outside Equestria to report any dead changelings with dark green or bright red-orange slash marks on their bodies, we're going to return any dead changelings we find to the Hive." Princess Celestia explained,

"How have you been, Sunset Shimmer?" Princess Luna asked,

"Really busy, I'm about to graduate school and I'm trying to decide my future." Sunset Shimmer answered,

"That's wonderful to hear, I am sure you will grow up to be a great pony." Princess Celestia spoke, Sunset Shimmer smiled,

"You all should head back now, we'll let you all know if we find anything new." Princess Luna said, and Twilight Sparkle and her friends boarded the train and it went to Ponyville.

---

The Cutie Mark Crusaders worked in class and Ornamental Jewelry and Starburn looked out the window again,

"Ornamental Jewelry, Starburn, please focus." Cheerilee spoke, and they did but worked slowly, classes finished after a while and they all left the classroom. The Cutie Mark Crusaders watched Tulip and Ornamental Jewelry gather flowers and ornamental looking armor and they walked to the School of Friendship to Ocellus and her friends,

"Here you six go, sorry about our behavior from last time." Tulip stated,

"Thanks, why this all of a sudden?" Sandbar questioned,

"Well, it's an apology for rejecting you guys last time for being friends with a changeling." Tulip explained,

"That, and the pony accused of killing Queen Chrysalis turned out to not be the culprit, but he got arrested for discriminating treatment to changelings when selling his products, our families and us two don't want criminal records." Ornamental Jewelry added,

"We heard about that, word spreads quickly in Equestria." Silverstream stated,

"We also heard there's two culprits." Smolder said,

"Did you know about that, Ocellus?" Gallus asked,

"No." Ocellus replied,

"Yona accept apology." Yona stated,

"Me too, we now have everything we need for our upcoming play." Silverstream added,

"Really, thanks, Twilight's going to be pleased, too." Sandbar said, and Tulip and Ornamental Jewelry headed back home. The Cutie Mark Crusaders walked around and noticed Strawberry and Blueberry baking together in their homes, Monochrome was sprinting while Haute Cuisine watched him while smiling and went back to cooking, and Banker and Bit Counter working together to make bank accounts for some of the ponies in Ponyville,

"Where's Starburn and Daylight Dimmer?" Sweetie Belle asked,

"Now that you mention it, yeah, where are they?" Apple Bloom questioned, they looked around for a brief second,

"There's Starburn." Scootaloo said as she pointed to him, and they trotted to him. Starburn walked on his own and looked around Ponyville,

"Starburn." Sweetie Belle called out, he turned around, he saw her coming along with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo,

"Where's yer uncle?" Apple Bloom asked,

"He's doing an odd job out of town right now." Starburn replied,

"What kind of job?" Scootaloo questioned,

"Clearing trees out of forests and woods in order to make paths to travel in them." Starburn answered,

"Wow, your uncle sounds busy." Apple Bloom stated,

"That's odd jobs for you, they're very versatile in what they could be." Starburn stated,

"He doesn't have a permanent job?" Sweetie Belle asked,

"No, we're moving a lot, never stay in one area for long, and speaking of which, he and I are going to be leaving Ponyville soon." Starburn responded,

"Oh, really?" Sweetie Belle questioned, Starburn nodded,

"Where are you two going?" Scootaloo inquired,

"Most likely Appleloosa." Starburn responded,

"Can we visit you or write letters to ya?" Apple Bloom asked,

"No, my uncle and I rather not stay in contact with others." Starburn answered,

"Why not?" Sweetie Belle asked,

"We don't feel like we know you guys enough to stay in contact as friends." Starburn explained,

"Can you two stay here longer then, please?" Sweetie Belle pleaded,

"Sorry, but there's no changing my uncle's mind once when he decides." Starburn replied, the Cutie Mark Crusaders groaned,

"I have to go now, I have to buy meals and drinks for our trip." Starburn said, and he walked away while the Cutie Mark Crusaders watched him.

---

The train arrived in Ponyville and Twilight Sparkle and her friends got off, Rainbow Dash began letting out short angry grunts,

"What do we do now?! We're back at square one!" Rainbow Dash vented,

"We have to investigate somebody else, we made a mistake and hindered our investigation." Twilight Sparkle replied,

"But where do we start? We don't have any clues on who our culprit could be." Rarity said,

"Well, let's start here, we'll just wait and see if anypony acts suspicious, we now know there's more than one person involved in the changelings' deaths, I'm guessing the culprits are forcing someone against their will to track them down for them, we're going to wait and see if anypony acts suspicious." Twilight Sparkle explained, and they watched. They looked around and saw Starburn doing some shopping, he bought some small snacks and two bottles of water and headed back home, they noticed the Cutie Mark Crusaders watching him, they trotted to them,

"Apple Bloom." Applejack called out,

"Sweetie Belle, darling." Rarity spoke, the three fillies turned around and faced them,

"Why are you three watching him?" Twilight Sparkle asked,

"Because we were talking to him earlier and he just said he had to do some shopping." Apple Bloom answered,

"That, and out of the six new students in our school, he's the only one not trying to make amends with the changelings, he didn't come along with us when the others were showing Ocellus why they hate her kind, either." Scootaloo added,

"You think he could be doing something when no one's looking?" Fluttershy asked,

"No, he isn't, if he was, I would've noticed." Pinkie Pie replied,

"That reminds me, you haven't thrown the new foals and their families a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party." Applejack reminded,

"I'll do that after we finish this case." Pinkie Pie answered,

"Well, you better hurry, Daylight Dimmer and Starburn are getting ready to leave for Appleloosa soon." Sweetie Belle said,

"What? Already?" Pinkie Pie blurted, the Cutie Mark Crusaders nodded,

"Starburn." Daylight Dimmer called out, they looked and saw Daylight Dimmer walk to Starburn,

"There's a lot of destroyed trees in the path my coworkers and I just finished clearing up, they need an extra hoof to pick up and clean the mess." Daylight Dimmer explained,

"Okay, I'll move the light and medium sized stuff." Starburn replied,

"Okay, let's go." Daylight Dimmer said, and they trotted out of Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle and the others watched them leave,

"See, there you two go, looks like everything's fine with them after all." Sunset Shimmer stated,

"Yeah, but he's still not trying to make friends with Ocellus." Sweetie Belle reminded,

"He's probably not ready yet, maybe after some time, he will soften up and become friends with them wherever he and his uncle live." Twilight Sparkle stated,

"Come on, Sweetie Belle, darling, let's start on your homework." Rarity said,

"You too, Apple Bloom, let's head home." Applejack added, and they all headed home.

---

Twilight Sparkle went back to her castle with Sunset Shimmer and they got ready for bed,

"So you ended up getting the wrong guy, huh?" Starlight Glimmer stated,

"Yeah, we were all certain Lemon Lime was the culprit." Twilight Sparkle replied,

"Starlight and I thought that, too, then this next case of deaths came up this morning." Spike said,

"Well, it's probably best you two rest, Spike and I are watching around Ponyville for anyone suspicious." Starlight Glimmer stated,

"Yeah, it's probably best we do, and good luck to you two." Sunset Shimmer replied, and they all got ready to sleep until they heard knocking at the door,

"Princess Twilight, you there? It's urgent." a mare spoke, Twilight Sparkle walked to her front door and opened it, she saw two royal guards at her door,

"More changelings were found dead just now, reported to have been found to the east of Equestria in a forest, all four of them had dark green slash marks on them, the killer buried and tried to hide their bodies, too." the mare explained,

"What is the time of death?" Twilight Sparkle asked,

"According to our reports, late afternoon." the mare answered,

"Okay, thank you for letting me know." Twilight Sparkle spoke, and she closed the door. She walked back to the others,

"The killer struck again, he got four changelings this time." Twilight Sparkle stated,

"We need to find this guy fast, if we don't, he and the other killer might make changelings extinct." Sunset Shimmer replied,

"I agree, but let's get some rest for now." Twilight Sparkle suggested, and they all went to bed and slept.

Comments

[kaiser0kolovos]

"It turns out the killings started shortly after we repelled Chrysalis and her changelings at Canterlot."

Wouldn't Changelings back then be considered hostile invaders and any Changeling found within Equestria would be akin to a body snatcher slowly trying to destroy destroy?

Actively searching out Changelings during peacetime is wrong but killing a trespassing Changeling while they were at war with Equestria would be understandable, kind of like if a French citizen killed a German spy during WW2 or if a flock of chickens killed a ferret.

Edit: I'm not making excuses, just that it's possible that the ponies that killed Changelings before they made peace under Thorax aren't the same ponies targeting Changelings now.