Part I- Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall, Who's the Most Malevolent of Them All?

Selene walked down the hallway of Rosewater High slowly, her light brown hooves caressing the cool linoleum. She kept her head low, but snuck the occasional look upwards, her green eyes sparkling in the bright white overhead lights. Rosewater was new... and that meant it was another thing to analyze and daydream about. Sure, summer was fun, but Selene Moon secretly liked school. The first quarter was almost over, but there were still so many things Selene Moon didn't know about Rosewater. So long as she could avoid all the jerks that resided there, she'd be fine. With jerks also came friends though, and Selene smiled as she entered her Math class. Sure, she had to take Geometry, but at least she got to be with her best friend, Jasmine Bloom.

She rose her light violet hoof to greet Selene, and she blushed. No, not now... this wasn't the time. At least when Selene Moon blushed, it was nearly invisible. Not even her own friends knew this, and boy, was it coming in handy now. Still, Selene Moon's skin was riddled with goosebumps once she sat down. Her pale brown body shivered.

"Hey," Jasmine said slowly. "Guess what?"

Selene smirked. "What?"

"Well... Speckled Leaves asked me out."

Selene Moon's breathing halted. This... wasn't... happening...

"R-Really?"

"Yeah. I'm surprised he's interested too. After all, I fucking suck," Jasmine sighed.

"N-No!" sputtered Selene. "I'm surprised he asked you out because you're obviously his superior. He's another one of those colts, isn't he? Like Skull."

Jasmine Bloom groaned a little. "No, he's my friend, and he's not like that. Speck is quite sweet, actually."

"And nerdy, right?"

"Yes, Selene, very nerdy."

"Good," Selene Moon nodded in approval.

"Ahem!" exclaimed Ms. Penne, the math teacher. "We are about to begin, Selene, Jasmine. Try not to talk during the lesson, or I'll have to move you."

"Ugh," growled Selene, a bubbling hot anger growing inside her. Be careful Ms. Penne, or she might erupt...

"Ms. Penne is a jerk, right?" Jasmine whispered.

"Yes, the worst. I want to just... rip off her head or something sometimes. Like now," Selene whispered back, her voice laced with rage.

"Me too," they smiled, and both opened their math books.

But, deep inside, Selene wished she was anywhere but in that Geometry class.

About an hour after math class ended, Selene Moon found herself at the end of the school day. Trotting back to her locker, she breathed in and out steadily.

What exactly is the point of all this shit anyway? Call me dramatic, but I personally think life is pointless. Ha, just like the Earth. After all, it is round! Selene giggled to herself.

Packing her black saddlebag at record speed, Selene Moon crossed over to Jasmine's locker to wait. About thirty seconds later, Jasmine came trotting over out of the endless stream of colorful ponies.

"How are you always so fast?" she gawked.

"I dunno, I guess I just get let out a little earlier than you do," Selene shrugged.

"Yeah," mumbled Jasmine as she packed up her stuff and arranged her schoolbooks in an orderly fashion.

"Let's go!" exclaimed Selene. They both walked down the hallway while Jasmine greeted several friends in the sea of ponies. Selene tried to keep up, but was getting pushed around too much. She had to duck around a good number of ponies, and ended up bumping into most of them. An assorted group of ponies, both mares and colts, yelped in pain when Selene Moon hit them. She, on the other hoof, barely felt a thing.

"Hey," she gasped as they eventually made it to an empty hallway.

"Hey," replied Jasmine with a smile, who then bent down to unlock the locker that held her trumpet.

"I still can't believe you chose to play the trumpet when you could have joined me in the Orchestra," Selene Moon shook her head.

"Yea, and play the violin? No thanks," laughed Jasmine.

"You could have played the bass, like me."

"Umm, no thanks. This trumpet is heavy enough."

The minute they left the school building, they were both hit with a chilling shock of wind. Selene shuddered, but then embraced it. The colder it got, the closer it got to winter. Selene Moon loved winter almost as much as she loved the night. Not quite as much, though. Nothing could ever outdo Princess Luna's marvelous craft.

"Bye," Selene lifted her hoof to form a small wave.

"Bye," echoed Jasmine, waving back.

As Selene made her way towards the school bus, she wondered how much longer she had until Jasmine Bloom was stolen away from her.

After walking back from the bus stop, since it was a couple blocks away from her actual house, and entering the house, Selene Moon started to hyperventilate. She loved Jasmine, and that she was sure of. This was the burden Selene Moon had balanced upon her shoulders since 6th grade. But she wasn't ready to accept that her friend was leaving her, or that she could never be with Jasmine... but she still could. A deranged smile spread across Selene Moon's lips. A giggle escaped her throat, and then metamorphosed into psychotic cackling. Selene had never had a pleasant laugh. In elementary school, she had even been teased for sounding "Like a witch."

If anypony had been in that room at the time, they would have understood why.

With the grin still plastered onto her deep pink lips, Selene bent downwards to pull a glossy iron lock box out from under her bed. It was quite compact, only large enough to fit maybe a book and a few other toy items. It had a thick gray padlock, and the minute Selene sat it on her bedspread, she reached her hoof beyond her white nightstand and brought it back with a small key of the same color. The metal was cool to the touch; it sent shivers of pleasure up Selene Moon's spine as she opened the box.

Inside was a small black notebook held closed by an elastic band of a faded blue color. Other items included a lighter, some oversized latex gloves, and a bottle of crushed foxglove. Pages were scattered around in the box, some crumpled, with edges torn, and others looking fresh and crisp like they had just been added yesterday. Shuffling some of the older papers aside, Selene picked up a fairly new one, and unfolded it, leaning back on one of her black and white pillows. The color scheme of Selene Moon's room was about the same- white walls, white furniture, and a black and white bedspread. The room was passably clean; a few things could be seen spread about the cream-colored carpet.

Speckled Leaves was the title of the paper. On it was his schedule, his favorite color, food, how he acted, his favorite activities, etc. Selene Moon only had this much information on a few amount of ponies- Jasmine Bloom, Jellybean, Pawprint, Sapphire Wings and Remote. Remote had been her "coltfriend" for a time, which ultimately resulted in him breaking up with her because she was just using him to get closer to Jasmine in a more romantic sense. The other two were Selene's other friends, and Sapphire Wings was Jasmine's second best friend. And was going to stay second if Selene Moon had anything to do with it.

She pulled out another page, this one looking as if it was the oldest piece in the box. Its edges were worn with age, and several grease and food stains marked it. The folds had even been taped back together in some places. The aforementioned page also held the most disturbing contents of all; it was titled Rules of Murder. It had a list of potential victims, most whose names had been scratched out over the years and new names placed beneath them.

Luckily for these ponies, Selene Moon had never gotten around to killing them. Nevertheless, the leaf still held more violent contents. There was a list of things to watch out for, as well as supplies needed for different kinds of murder. Setting down both leaves of paper, Selene dug though the box one last time and brought out the bottle of crushed foxglove leaves and a pencil.

Pressing the page titled Rules of Murder against the closed lock box, Selene Moon carefully wrote Speckled Leaves's name under the "Possible Victims" column. She also added Sapphire Wings's name for good measure.

"Soon you'll both pay for trying to take Jasmine away from me," she muttered faintly.

"You'll both pay..."