The hatred of the shadow

A new morning began and the guards got ready for work. The general was walking towards the castle to inspect the guards as a young recruit ran hectically towards him.

The recruit stopped in front of the general and began to pant. He tired talk but just sunk to the ground.

The general raised his eyebrow. "What is this behavior recruit? Take a deep breath and tell me what is so important!"

The recruit took a deep breath and stood up. He tried to stand as straight as possible and began to talk. "Two of the guards were gone missing after their patrol. They were suppose to watch over the hallway towards the basement. After they didn't came to their beds in their barrack they sent me to search for them."

The general became suspicious and began to hope that he is mistaken with his idea he had in mind. "What happened to the guards?"

The recruit took another deep breath and went on talking. "They weren't at their posts so I decided to walk down the basement. As I walked down I found the dead bodies of the missing guards! They both were killed with a knife or a dagger. We couldn't find more clues to the killer!"

The general silently cursed and then talked to the recruit. "Go to your barrack and tell every guard that we have to be careful!"

The recruit nodded and walked away while the general made his way to the castle. He quickly walked through the hallways to find the right room. As he reached the room he knocked on the door.

After a while the door opened a Rising stood in front of him. "General? I didn't expected you. What is the reason for you to speak to me so early?"

The general completely skipped greetings of formalities. "Two guards were found dead in the basement!"

Rising was shocked as he heard the general. "What? How did that happened and who did it?"

"That is the reason why I am here. We don't know who it did but I want to give a request to the magic council to sent a group of magic hunters to this castle as fast as possible."

Rising immediately nodded and began to write a letter to Celestia to ask for the hunters. The general waited for Rising. After Rising wrote the letter he walked towards Spikes room to let him sent the letter.

On the way he talked with the general. "Do we know what the killer wanted?"

The general shook his head. "Not exactly but the bodies were found in the basement and there is only one thing that would be worth the trouble."

Rising new that he meant the laboratory. "Are there any reports from the prison?"

"The guards just went to their posts a minute ago and I didn't got any reports from the other night patrols yet."

"I think extra security is needed general."

The general nodded and stopped walking. "I will immediately double the amount of guards at the prison and the castle. I will also order a night shift for the inside of the prison."

Rising nodded in agreement and the general walked away. Rising went on towards Spikes room and as he reached it he hectically knocked against it.

After a few seconds the door was opened by Spike who looked confused at Rising. "What is it Rising?"

Rising put the letter in Spike claw and quickly said. "This letter needs to be sent to Celestia immediately!"

Spike jumped a bit back in surprise about Risings outburst but then quickly breathed his magical fire to send the letter. As it was on its way Spike looked at Rising. "Now can you tell me what this letter was about?"

Rising sighed. "Two guards are dead! In the letter I asked Celestia as the archmage to sent a group of magic hunters."

Spike looked at him for a moment before he fully understood what Rising just said. "Wait what? When did this happened?"

"Last night. That is all we know and that is why I need the help of magic hunters, I hope they arrive soon."

Spike just nodded and Rising walked away. He decided to train early today and walked toward the arena. While he walked through the hallways he thought about the last days and tired to find anything suspicions.

As he reached the arena he realized that because he was so lost in his thoughts he forgot his hammer and shield in his room. He sighed and walked back into the castle.

As he walked though the hallways towards his room he heard Spike calling after him. "Rising! I already got a letter from Celestia!"

Spike stopped in front of him and gave him the letter. Rising looked at the letter before he read it. "That was fast..."

Dear Rising Light

I write this immediately after I sent out the hunters. They said they will reach Ponyville in this afternoon. I told them to hurry and I gave them your letter with all the information. I informed the rest of the magic council too. I am shocked to hear that this happened. Please make sure that no other pony gets hurt. I hope this killer will be found fast so he will face consequences for his actions.

Princess Celestia

Rising was relived as he heard the hunters will already arrive in three hours. He hoped that they could manage to find this killer. As he looked up from the letter he saw that Spike was already gone. 'Probably preparing breakfast.'

He began to walk back to his room again as he saw that Bright walked towards him. He greeted her with a smile. "Good morning Bright."

Bright didn't smile back. "Good morning. Spike told me what happened..."

Rising didn't knew what to say and after a few seconds of silence Bright just walked away and said. "I think today we should wait with talking to Fallen till we know more about the whole thing."

Rising just nodded without saying anything. As she was gone again he began to walk again. After he took his hammer and shield from his room he made his way back to the arena.

Rising entered the arena and wanted to start training but then he heard a voice from above him. "Hey there Rising!"

He looked up and saw that it was Rainbow Dash. "Good morning Rainbow. What are you doing here?"

She landed in front of him and took out a new spear. "I am here for training of course. I got a new spear after what happened and I decide to give it a test run."

Rising nodded with a smile and his horn began to glow. He enchanted their weapons with a spell that made them harmless but they would paralyze every target they hit.

After that they walked both to one end of the arena. As they reached the ends they looked at each other and got into fighting position. Rising began to count down. "Three. Two. One. Zero!"

Rainbow immediately flew into the air and Rising lifted his shield. He decided to use no magic in this duel. Rainbow Dash rushed at Rising with her spear forward.

They clashed against each other and with that they began to fight many duels. Sometimes Rising won sometimes Rainbow. It took them till noon till they finally decided that it was enough to one day and said goodbye.

Before Rainbow flew away she asked Rising. "How was talking with Malonex today?"

Rising sighed. "We didn't talk with him today."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

Rising sighed. "Last night two guards were killed in the basement. We don't know who did it but I ordered some magic hunters to come here and look over them. Till they brought light to the situation we decided that the security will be at least doubled and that no pony other than the guards gets inside the prison."

Rainbow was silence for a moment but then she responded. "Well I bet there is nothing more behind it than some crazy pony. There sure is nothing more behind it."

Rising nodded slowly. 'I hope so...'

After a quick goodbye Rainbow flew away and Rising began to walk back to the castle to bring his weapons to his room.

As he walked toward the doors of the castle he looked at the sun and realized that he missed breakfast. He sighed shortly and entered the castle. He walked through the hallways towards his room. He walked inside it and placed his weapons next to his bed.

As he wanted to leave his room he heard Spike calling. "Lunch is ready!"

Rising smiled a bit and walked to the dining room. As he walked through the hallways he remembered that the hunters would arrive soon. That lighted up his mood a bit as he realized that they soon would know the answer to everything.

He reached to dining room and opened the door. He saw that Bright and Twilight were already sitting there and talked a bit. He silently walked to his seat and sat down.

A few seconds later Spike entered the room with the lunch. He gave each one of them a plate and they began to eat. Rising ate in silence and watched Twilight and Bright talking about Brights magic studies.

After they finished their lunch they talked for a bit longer. A bit later Twilight asked a question to Rising. "Spike told me what happened last night. He also told me that you ordered some magic hunters here. I wanted to ask you..."

She was interrupted by the sound of the doors that were slammed open. They all looked at the entrance and saw five ponies entering the room with quick steps. As they walked in everypony could hear the sound of metal hitting the ground. They all wore dark blue hooded cloaks and had their head lowered. The cloak was hold in place by an emblem. The emblem was a red star impaled by a blue dagger.

Rising stood up and walked towards them. As the five ponies were in front of him the bowed down before him.

Rising could now see that the group was lead by an unicorn and on each side of him was one pegasus and one earth pony. The leader talked first. "We are here as ordered archmage."

Rising loomed at the five hunters for a short time and then nodded. "Stand up. We have to talk about the details."

They stood up and lifted their heads. Now everypony could see their faces. They wore white masks with blue runes around the eyeholes. They looked at Rising and nodded. "We are familiar with the situation, we only need to know where the dead ponies are."

Rising nodded and indicated them to follow him. The hunters followed directly behind the archmage and after them walked Bright together with Twilight. They reached the basement where Rising pointed at the two dead guards. Nopony had moved them and Rising was relived about that because he completely forgot to give any orders about that.

As they entered the room Bright began to feel uncomfortable and even a bit weak.

The leader of the hunters shortly nodded at the rest and they all touched the left side of their masks. The blue runes began to glow and a white magic field covered the eyes. They began to look everywhere in the room.

Rising already knew about these runes but Twilight was curious and looked at Rising. "What kind of runes are these? I have never seen any like these before."

Rising was only partly surprised about that. "Probably because you never needed them. Theses runes create these tiny magic field in front of their eyes. When they look through them they are able to see the magical energy. You probably only learned the regular spell for that."

Twilight nodded a bit but Bright was confused. "I understand that this makes sense for the earthponies and pegasi but why does the unicorn need them?"

Rising smiled that she noticed that little detail. "If the hunters would use their magic they would leave a little bit magical energy behind which could interfere with their investigation."

They watched the hunters doing their work for a few more minutes till it seems like they are finished. The leader followed by his companions walked to Rising. "We have all the information we can get here. Do you want the information right now or should we discuss this in private archmage?" He pointed with his head toward Twilight and Bright.

Rising nodded shortly and turned to Bright and Twilight. "Bright I don't think it would be good if you hear the details about the death of these ponies. In fact I am not even sure if it is healthy for you to be near these dead ponies."

He had noticed that Bright started to act slower and that her legs were shaking a bit. As response she only nodded and walked away. After she left the basement Rising turned to Twilight. "Well it is your castle so I think you want to know the details too."

Twilight nodded and they both turned back to the hunters. The leader nodded and began to explain. "One of them was killed with a throwing knife, the other one with a dagger. Both weapons were hold by a levitation spell. The killer only used a weak spell so the aura of the user has already faded away for the most part. It is impossible to indentify it. Also the magical energy from one of the guards already faded more than the other so we can assume that there was a time gab from about five to thirty seconds between the two deaths. The blood has been removed from the weapons and has been found near the dead bodies. Besides that we couldn't find any other clues at the corpses."

Rising sighed. "That isn't very much information. This will not help us finding the killer."

But the leader wasn't finished yet. "But we found something else. The crystal that locks he door has affected by magic. We couldn't identify which spell was used on it but the magical aura is still very clear. The used spell must have been stronger than needed."

Rising looked at them shocked for a moment. "Can you find the pony the aura belongs to?"

The leader nodded. "There are not too many options who it could be. It is a aura of a dark mage."

Rising just stared at them for a moment before he got his mind back together. "What? That is impossible! The last free dark mage was caught six month ago and now I should believe that a dark mage that came out of nowhere managed to kill two ponies and escape without leaving anything behind!"

The leader was still sure that he was right. "I don't say a new dark mage was the killer. We assume that this magic aura belongs to the half shadow pony Malonex."

Rising looked at them disbelieving. "That is impossible. He is still in his prison. It is impossible that he managed to escape his prison."

The leader and his companion didn't even listened to him anymore. "I am sorry archmage but we can't waste our time any longer. We have to check the possibility that the killer was Malonex. It is a strict order of princess Celestia and princess Luna to keep all dark mages under control."

Without waiting for a respond they left the basement. Rising quickly walked after them as he realized where they are going. Twilight was left behind in the basement.

Rising caught up to the leader and walked to his side. "If it is necessary to do this then I have to insist that I will watch everything."

The leader just nodded and said. "If you insist archmage."

The walked towards the prison as Rising began to wonder. "How are you even going to compare the aura if you don't see them at the same time and even than you could make a mistake?"

As the leader responded his voice sounded completely emotionless. "First of all we are trained to make never mistakes and second we contained a bit of the left magical energy inside this container crystal."

He took out a crystal from under his cloak. It had a dark red color. "This crystal is enchanted to make it possible to test the similarities between two magical auras to nearly ninety-nine percent."

As they reached to prison the guards made immediately room for them. Rising noticed that the general already doubled the amount of guards. He hoped that this test would prove this as unnecessary.

The entered the prison and saw that Malonex was mixing his potions as usually. As Malonex saw them enter he sighed. "So much for my day alone."

Rising opened the door in the transparent wall without a word and the hunters entered the cell. Now Malonex noticed the red stars impaled by blue daggers. "Why have you called magic hunters here?"

Rising attempted to talk but the leader was faster. "Two ponies are dead and you are the main suspect."

Malonex cursed in his mind. 'This fool Lock killed two ponies and now I am a suspect. This will make everything a lot more difficulty.' On the outside he just laughed. "This is pathetic even by your standards Rising."

Rising responded with. "It was a aura of a dark mage that was found near the crime scene."

Now Malonex got angry about these claims. His eyes began to glow with dark magic but Rising knew that Malonex magic was limited by the light crystal and that he had no access to strong spells.

The leader of the hunters stepped towards Malonex, he levitated the crystal in front of Malonex. "I am sure you know how these work."

Malonex growled. He already knew what the result would be. He shoot a ray of energy at the crystal and it absorbed the energy. The leader took the crystal back and looked at it from a moment. "The auras match ninety-five percent, since we don't know which spell he uses at the crime scene we can give a ten percent tolerance. Thereby the result is that this was indeed his magic at the crime scene."

Rising couldn't believe what he heard. "But that is impossible. There is no way for him to escape this prison, it would not even be possible for him to break the bound to the light crystal."

The leader began to think for a moment. "That is true. I was informed about the details about this prison by princess Celestia. There is no way for him to escape from this prison without help."

Now Malonex was getting annoyed. "You fools just realize it now? Next time you chase after a clue that you know is wrong make sure to not bother me with your pointless actions. Now go away, you already wasted enough of my time."

The leader turned to Malonex and grabbed him at the throat. "I am not a fool and I waste as much of your time as I want. You have nothing to say you are just a prisoner."

Malonex began to smile. "If you insist to spent all day in this prison with me then I can't stop you, there are you right. But if you do that make sure that you take you mask off. I want to see your face when the guards tell you that they found more dead ponies and you realized that you are the idiot I said you are."

The leader stared at Malonex for a short time but then let go of him. He turned around a left the prison and the other hunters followed him. As Rising began to walk away he heard Malonex say. "And these ponies are some of Equestrias elite. This land really is as pathetic as it looks."

As Rising was outside the hunters began to talk to him. "We will search the entire area around this town to find the real killer. I would recommend to double the security around the castle and the prison."

Rising nodded. "The general already took care of that."

The hunters nodded and without any more words the turned around and walked away.

Malonex, now alone with the guards that was suppose to watch over him, began think about a new plan. 'This shouldn't have happened. This idiot Lock will ruin the entire plan.'

He heard the voice of his master in his head. "Clam down Malonex, the hope isn't lost yet. If Lock is carful he could still manage to free us. We just have to wait and see."

Malonex wasn't pleased with this idea. 'This is getting me to much out of control for my taste.'