The Rise of a Genocide

When you spend most of your time in a fever, keeping track of time is by far not the easiest thing to do.  At least for me.  In between the unrest full nights, and the fever-induced seizures I asked the guards or the doctor that came to see me about the time.  A day passed, a week.  At this point I got a little better but, I still was in a near coma like state. A month, two months.  When the fever dreams became my new home and reality I was dragged out by the guards, given some food and drink and after that a unicorn came and healed me. Seems I have suffered enough. I thought to myself. I was given a hour to rest without having a disease in my body.  I was then brought into the throne room.  The sunshine burnt my eyes and I shivered as the light came back to my vision.  The throne room was filled with ponies of different sizes and with, what seemed like, different social statuses.  But, there was no one I recognized.  It must have been a strange sight.  A stallion shacking like a leaf in the autumn breeze. "How do you like the light foul demon?" A voice from within the crowd asked.  So, they think I'm the demon? If only they knew. Nothing less was to be expected though, a unicorn offering to teach ritual magic, then causing enormous damage to the castle and then nearly killing the princesses and the guards.  I mean, how could one blame them?

The mass of ponies parted and I saw the platform with the thrones.  On their thrones sat the princesses each with their own bandages and scars.  The guards put me down and a shock wave of pain jolted through me, starting in my legs and ending in my head.  This ending with me falling to the ground and the wounds opening again.  And as drops of blood fell to the floor and the white bandages slowly got more and more red spots, the weaker or more sentimental ponies in the crowd seemed to think I had suffered enough.  With a little struggle I got up but, every time I tried to get up the pain took me and I fell to the floor. "Do...you...enjoy this?" I asked the ponies who now appeared more as tyrants than fair rulers.  Against what I thought they actually heard me and Twilight took the word. "No. We do not." The guards helped me to the staircase and made sure I didn't fall over. "So, what do you want from me?" Every breath of air sent waves of pain through me but, before the guards needed to help me, I heard the words of my mother running through my head. Don't look weak.  Be strong Deman, be strong. The few memories the nightmares hadn't claimed filled me with strength. "Forgiveness, and that you teach the arts you promised." The words of that the princesses could even consider taking up knowledge in those horrid arts spread concerned, fearful, and angry reactions throughout the crowd.  If the princesses of Canterlot had been the tyrants they seemed like, from my perspective at least, they would have killed the ponies in the crowd that protested.  I thought this because of my experiences with royalty back in Acoirna.  They didn't have anything against marking their dominance.  They struck down anyone who dared to oppose them, torturing or killing them in the feared Prisons of Honor.  A treatment I got from their guards was that I was dragged into the back of an alley and beat me down until I was holding onto life by just and inch, and then they healed me enough for me not to die!

I was tempted to tell them to sod of.  But, my better judgment came to my rescue and I replied. "Yes."

The cyan Pegasus named Rainbow Dash came up to the platform. "Are you sure about the Twi?" Twilight Sparkle, I had managed to fetch her full name whilst I was sick, said through the angle of her mouth. "It's not any day you get to be the first in many years to learn a new art, especially a art of magic." Dash took a few seconds before she responded. "This art as you call it is ritual magic! They use dead bodies and cannibalism to use magic!" Ugh...Those words hurt... It was true that some sick maniacs had used the magic of death to become the most powerful ponies to have ever lived at the time and despite extensive purges and attempts to control it, some cult member refused to die and the memories were now carved in stone. "No...I do not use death to earn my powers," The crowd now turned their attention to me. "I spit at the users of such horrid magic.  My arts celebrate life and uses other things than bodies.  So what you are referring to is Blood Magic, and I will never use it." With the news some members of the crowd seemed relieved, but almost everypony else still stared at me in disbelief and scorn. "Good, now to why we got this ceremony thrown together," Celestia got her word in. "Do you Deman Ner're, swear to teach the arts you have talked about?" I knew that even if this didn't cut it for a ceremony like this, but telling them would not be the way to go.  The ceremony needed to be done out in the free air, with a ritual and not just some promises. Just roll with it Deman... "I do." Celestia smiled and said. "Will you never injure a living thing when doing this?" I had give them the harsh truth. "I will do what I can to avoid it." Some nervous whispering amongst the crowd, but Celestia didn't seem to care. "And finally.  Will you forgive us for your pain and suffering?" This was a tough one.  I wanted to say no and leave.  But, that was out of the question, I could not give up.  I could not live with the nightmares who were slowly eating away at my sanity. "Yes." The news seemed to please the princess even more and now Luna started to smile (Twilight had been smiling this entire time) and Celestia then said. "When can we begin?" With the amount of things needed for rituals I couldn't start that day, even if I wanted, so I said. "Tomorrow, I need to prepare myself." After some time of awkward silence the guards made the crowd go out of the throne room and Deman followed.  I went back into my room and took a piece of paper and a splinter of wood and carved a intricate pattern into the paper.  A restoration spell.  As soon as it was executed the effect was upon me.  No words can quite explain how it is to return to your strength after being sick in a matter of seconds.  The closest thing I can come to describe it would be a orgasm.

Still panting for air I leaned towards my bed until I could resume breathing normally. Now, I could finally get a closer look at my room.  It was dim with bare stone walls.  My bed was placed in the middle and the only other furniture was a chest and a bookshelf, without any books.  There were no windows and the air was chocking.  My bags had been moved from the first room I had used and there I found some bits.  Before I left the room I brought a sheet of paper and the wooden splinter.

Whilst following the last members of the crowd I made sure to cover my face. I walked in the far back and hoped to get outside without making contact with anyone.  But, alas, I heard a voice from a mare behind me. "Hey you!" I had to turn around, the outcome would be the same no matter what, so I did."Mind if I join you?" She was about three inches lower than me, with a red mane and a orange coat.  She seemed fragile for a earth pony and the bloodshot eyes either told me that she had a allergic reaction or that she had been awake all night, and in a city like Canterlot, where fields weren't very plentiful, it would suggest that she studied. "Yes actually." She caught up to me and held out a hoof to stop me. "Why?" I tried to avoid eye contact, but then she took my face in her hoof and forced me to look her in the eyes.  One of them was blue and the other one was orange. "I want to be alone." She now stood in front of me and looked me deeper in the eyes. "Anything wrong?" Have patience Deman. I tought to myself.  Starting to get annoyed by the mare's persistence I said. "Weather or not something is wrong or not, is none of your business," I now lowered my voice so that the guards wouldn't have any reason to imprison me. "If you follow me I will smear you all over the walls." She didn't say anything so I took off.  Right before she was out of my field of hearing she said. "You got quite the nerve for a blank-flank!" Oh no you didn't you bitch! Rage boiled in my head as I turned around.  My horn lit up and she levitated towards me.  The black and white aura-bubble around her sealed away her screams.  With a little spell it turned invisible and for anyone who didn't know what was going on it had to have looked strange.  A unicorn with a lit up horn, without levitating something or performing some kind of spell.  If only they knew... Again.

I went out into the courtyard what Dash had first dropped me in all those moons ago.  There were no traces of my blood anywhere.  I found a door in the room.  Past it was a round room very similar to my room except that this room was completely empty.  The aura-bubble came back into view and the mare dropped on the floor.  While she was still trying to make heads and tails of where she was I locked the door, in case you don't know, spells like the aura-bubble blocks out what is outside to who ever is inside.  My horn lit up again and a smokeless fireball flew to the back wall and gave the room the familiar orange light of fire. "So, what did you say to me?" She stood up and said, rather angrily. "I told you that you," She pointed a hoof at me. "Has quite the nerve to talk to somepony like that.  You don't have your qutie mark and, my guess is that, you probably don't even have a job." "So what?" She laughed at me.  She laughed at me. "Why? You are pathetic! The only thing to match it is your mouth!" The rage that had some what somewhat subsided whilst I was on my way out came back.  What happened next is difficult to explain...

In the area around my field of view shadows began to dance around the edges and the shadows elsewhere got darker.  Like in a...dream... With some time in between the image my eyes painted in front of me vanished, and then, came back and vanished again.  Like my subconsciousness and my consciousness were in a argument over whether or not I should be awake or not.

But, this is what happened.  My horn lit up and she started to float again.  And all of a suddenly here neck started to stretch.  She screamed in pain, but I couldn't stop.  The screams became louder and louder.  But, they didn't last for long.  Her head got torn off by may magic and the blood splattered all over me, the ceiling, the walls and the floor.  My eyesight blinked out right before her head was completely torn of, it blacked out and when it returned the body and the head was floating in front of me.  Out of both wounds blood vessels hung down like long strings of red thread and blood poured out from them coloring the mare and the floor red as roses.  Spikes from the spine stuck up from the wounds and penetrated the skin along the edges.  And then...the face...  The face! It was contorted in a sicking display of pain and fear.  I heard myself say. "How do you like that, bitch?" Why did I say that!? Why did I kill her!? She was innocent!  I turned the body around and shoved the body over the fireball.  It took a few minutes to start burning, but when it started to burn it burnt with a strong fire.  And soon, the corpse was reduced to a burnt shell, too charred to be recognized.  The room got filled with the smell of burnt flesh and I, carefully, snuck out of the room, out into the courtyard.  I took a some water from the fountain in the right-hoof corner of the courtyard.  The fresh blood was easy to wake up and when I was out of the courtyard my vision turned back to normal.  The knowledge of what I had done didn't plague me, like it wasn't me.  I smiled and thought about the fact. I am possessed, so maybe it's that?

Out in the streets of Canterlot I found a shop with a array of quills, empty scrolls and books, and different other office-supplies.  There I bough a utility knife.  At a goldsmith I found a rather sweet looking trinket.  I had no idea what I was going to use it for, but I needed gold.  Magic flowed much more easily through metals like gold.  Silver could be used for the same things, but gold was so much better.  Alchemy was a art that was very underused.  Most ponies stopped when they could turn anything into gold, I didn't though.  I did turn things into gold, one of the few things I remember doing was to give ponies turds made of gold and watch the confused facial expressions.  The sight when several feeling played across their faces could always crack you up.  When I decided continue my studies in the filed of alchemy, a world of possibilities opened.  Potions, spells and, after sometime, rituals gave me enormous power.  At a time I could cheat death with a potion I named Foniskens Taiers, or for those of you that doesn't speak Ye Olde Tongue, The Tears of The Phoenix.  One sip of that and you could stand a mediocre sized cannonball to the face.

I didn't have any more errands to attend so I spent a few hours window shopping the sun started to go down and the sky went from blue to purple.  Back at the castle Luna waited for me.  I slowed down and tilted my head, at the time I was unaware of her role in Equestria I was even more confused than one might expect.  She had a serious expression on her face and said slowly. "Come with me." I bowed and did as she asked.  She went up through several corridors and up a long staircase.  After some time I got bored and started to levitate.  All the ponies I met on the way to Canterlot had gone of their hinges when they figured it out.  What in all of Equestria was the big deal? That was beyond me.  And even Luna lifted a eyebrow when I came out of the staircase and into the room she had led me to. "Why am I here?" She stood at the end of the room, with a picture levitating in front of her. "You saw something when I looked into your mind, didn't you?" I thought about the question, what could it have to do with her? "Yes I did." She snapped after a breath of air that escaped her lungs and straightened up. "What did you see?" This was a reaction I did not expect.  The youthful mare shock like a filly, scared of her own shadow.  When I saw her like this I wanted to comfort her, but the only thing I could do was to tell her what I saw.  The shadows stallion and the shadow mare.  When I was about to start with the second act of my nightmare she stopped me. "I presume you know about Nightmare Moon?" My silence filled her in on my ignorance and she shared the story about how she became Nightmare Moon.  After that she walked towards the staircase, turned and said. "Feel free to sleep here for the night, I have things to attend." And as the sound of her hoofsteps died out I heard that sh shouted. "Don't touch my stuff!" I had to laugh and trotted across the room to the balcony, there I could see far and wide across the wast lands around Canterlot.  The thing that caught my attention though transpired in a courtyard and after a short ritual to temporarily enhance my hearing I could take hear the conversation. "...ound her like this sir." A mare said, she had a strong voice, but something had scared her. "With all the blood and the decapitated head?" A stallion asked. "No. We did it ourself." She whispered, but I heard her, and out loud she said. "Yes sir." They were obviously scared and the stallion said. "First murder in Canterlot in nine hundred years..." He must have found a small scrap of courage deep down. "Pack up.  Get the doctor here, he will be able to say more than we can." The two ponies took the body back into the room, sealed it off and parted.

I sat down on the fence around the balcony and dangled with my hind legs over the giant abyss beneath me. I didn't know that I had what it took to commit murder... Then, the voice of the shadow stallion came back into my head. Not like that maybe.  But you have killed before.  Let me enlighten you. It came as a shock and I nearly fell of the fence and when I had my hooves back on safe ground, memories flashed before my eyes.  A young filly with onyx black hair and white fur was walking through a corridor.  He had a doll slung over his back and I was in a happy trot and went into a room where he left it.  After sometime a other filly, a girl, came in and took the doll.  After that when the first filly came for it.  When he didn't find it he went through room to room and eventually came to the room were the girl was. "Give it back!" He shouted, but the girl said back. "No. It's mine.  I took it and, besides, you are to cowardly to take it back!" My darkness always had a special place in your mind, even when you were a filly.  And you really hated her, so all I had to was to push you over the edge. The shadow stallion was now next to me and I was in the room, right next to the door.  The filly that was me lunged at the other filly and bit her throat, it was over so fast, and before you knew it, she was dead.  I walked out of the room with the doll over my back and the scene disappeared. You were only five years back then.  Already with a life on you consciousness, your sisters. This struck me hard. "My sister..." I closed the doors and laid myself to sleep on a big rug I found in the corner.  I didn't touch her stuff though.