Chapter 7
Apprentice

A bucket of water was splashed onto her face, and Lyra awoke with a splutter as she coughed some of the water up. She looked around the room, taking in her surroundings. Lyra was in a dimly lit room, the room however seemed to be furnished well. The mare wondered briefly if she was back in Canterlot. She struggled against the ropes that bound her legs, and Lyra only then seemed to register that she was tied to the wall, dangling off the ground.

Lyra looked up and squinted into the dim light to see the length of rope that tied her front hooves together, and suspended her off the ground. Lyra could tell she had been hanging there for a while by how sore her forelegs were from supporting the rest of her weight. Lyra groaned in pain as she tried again to struggle against the binds, but they did not even budge.

"Awake I see..." A voice called from the dim room around her.

Lyra's head bolted up and she cast her gaze around the darkness as memories flooded back to her, being awoken in the middle of the night, attacked by a strange creature, hands around her neck.

"I-is it you? The one with hands?" Lyra choked out in her best attempt of a firm voice given the circumstances.

"Again, you impress Cicero with your bravery. Under normal circumstances one would be begging for mercy or wailing for help. Had that happened... You would have died." Cicero said, still not showing himself from the darkness.

"What d-do you mean?" Lyra managed out, pushing down her fear as best she could.

"We are going to play a game, you and I..." Cicero said finally stepping into the light and being revealed.

Lyra gasped as she saw him, the flat face, small nose, pale skin, bipedal figure, fully clothed, and his hands. This was a human that she had heard and dreamed of. Everypony said she was crazy, and that she should give up on her research of humans, but here one was. Lyra paused at the next thought, the human was interrogating her.

"Now this game will test you, and if you pass... You live, simple right?" Cicero said with a cackle as he jumped back into the darkness, once more fading from view.

The room was suddenly illuminated as torches around the room burst into flames. At the far end of the room Lyra could see several other ponies who had black bags over their heads who were tied to the ground. All of them were struggling and Lyra could swear that now she was listening for it she could hear somepony crying. The jester was off to Lyra's right, hands on hips and smiling from ear to ear as he stood proudly in front of the only door the room had.

Cicero walked over and unsheathed his dagger in front of Lyra, he then cut the bindings, making Lyra flinch away from the blade. Lyra fell off the wall and bounced on a her rump, eliciting a groan of pain as she rubbed her back with a hoof and attempted to stand. Her front legs buckled at the attempt to stand, and caused her to take a moment to let the blood flow normally before trying it again. This time she made it successfully to her hooves.

"See those other ponies on the far side of the room?" Cicero asked a fit of laughter already working itself up.

Lyra nodded to him, and in response Cicero threw the dagger in front of her, where it stuck in the ground, handle up. Lyra jumped back slightly from the sudden appearance of the knife.

"The dark brotherhood has a bit of an initiation ritual. To live you need to kill one of those ponies, but I have a little snippet of information for you..." Cicero said playfully as the laughter built.

"W-what?" Lyra managed out with an incredulous voice as she looked between the human and the three ponies.

"One of those ponies paid me to kill you. I won't tell you who, but one of them wanted you to die. Why don't you go have a talk with them before you decide who to kill?" Cicero said in a dark voice, before bursting into a full blown fit of maddening laughter, causing all four of the ponies in the room to cringe in fear.

Cicero returned to standing in front of the door and twirled his ebony dagger in his hands. Lyra looked from him, down to the gleaming steel dagger in front of her, to the three ponies. The mare wondered why anypony would want her dead, especially wanting her dead so badly they would pay to have it done.

Lyra levitated the dagger in front of her and moved slowly to where the three other ponies lay, bound and hooded. Drawing closer Lyra could see that two of the ponies were stallions, and one mare. Lyra attempted to identify them by their cutie marks, but was unable to due to the black paint that was covering their flanks.

"Wh-who paid him..." Lyra choked out as she began to cry.

None of the ponies even attempted to make a noise, but all of them flinched at her voice. Lyra gazed at each of them, slowly gaining confidence as she pondered over which one could possibly have done it.

"Was it because of my constant research of humans? Was it because you didn't want a crazy pony like me to live near you?" Lyra said bitterly as she looked at the dagger.

None of the ponies moved, Lyra was beginning to get angry that the pony that had put the hit on her head was not even begging for mercy. Lyra put the knife to the stallion who was on the far right's throat.

"Was it you?!" Lyra yelled.

"N-no please..." The stallion stammered.

Lyra levitated the blade over to the stallion on the far left, "Or was it you?"

"Please... I have a wife and two foals!" Begged the stallion.

Lyra then moved the dagger to the throat of the final pony, "Perhaps you did it..."

"Please, Lyra... Don't hurt me...." The mare said.

"Bon Bon?" Lyra choked back a sob.

Bon Bon began to cry quitly as she shied away from the knife on her throat as best she could.

"No... No! Bon Bon would never!" Lyra said incredulously as she stared back at the human.

Cicero merely had a mad look on his face, his eyes filled to the brim with delight at the sight of the crushed pony. Lyra's licked her lips, tasting the salty tears that had streamed down there, and looked back to her closest friend and roommate.

"Bon Bon, did you hire somepony to kill me?" Lyra asked in a firm tone that hid the tears on her face to the currently blinded mare.

"Lyra... You always talked about the strangest things... Ponies were starting to talk, and I was losing business since you live with me." Bon Bon sobbed out.

"How could you!" Lyra screamed at her best friend.

"W-when I heard that there was a group that killed anypony you wanted for nothing but bits..." Bon Bon choked out.

Lyra saw red, her best friend just sat there in front of her, and admitted that she had hired somepony to kill her. Lyra looked back to the human who seemed to be on the verge of cheering at the spectacle. Lyra looked back to her bound and blinded friend and frowned.

"You have yet to say sorry..." Lyra said in a dark tone.

Bon Bon opened her mouth to speak, but before she could offer an apology through the black burlap bag over her face, the dagger was plunged into her chest. Lyra made the dagger slide into her friend again and again as she cried her eyes out. After minutes of stabbing the mare calmed down and looked over to the human, who was now accompanied by a dark blue mare who had a long man that was a darker shade of blue than her coat.

"She seems to have passed with flying colors..." Arcane Arts said to Cicero.

"Yes mother, she will do fine." Cicero said as he tried in vain to control his cackling.

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Cicero led Lyra back to her home, through the Everfree Forest. All the while Cicero hummed a tune that gave warning to the nearby animals that he was passing through. It had only taken the jester a week of slaughtering the animals whilst humming the same tune, until their survival instincts taught them the warning.

"So... What did you do with the two stallions that were in there?" Lyra asked timidly.

"They had hits on their head, so they were dealt with." Cicero said happily.

"So, what am I to do now that you have initiated me?" Lyra asked looking up the the tall form of the human.

"You are to read the books I gave you, and practice the spells the Night Mother left in them. Once you are completed I will fetch you to enact your first contract. Then you will be part of the Dark Brotherhood." Cicero said looking down to the pony.

"So... You aren't from this world?" Lyra asked out of the blue.

"Wha- no! Of course not, Cicero's world is on the other side of the void. A wonderful place, where one can easily stab someone with a good enough excuse." Cicero laughed.

"And this... Sithis?" Lyra asked hoping to get more information about the human's culture.

"Sithis is the lord of, and is the void itself. He is all that is darkness and death." Cicero's voice held a serious tone.

Lyra was taken back by the sudden change in the jester. The mint green mare looked up into the golden eyes that held such madness and cringed slightly.

"Are all humans as crazy as you?" Lyra asked with her ears flattened against her head.

"Cicero, crazy? Hehehehe... Now that's madness!" Cicero cackled at his joke as he led the mare on.

"I think I can make it back from here, best if you are not seen..." Lyra said timidly, but regained her confidence as Cicero nodded his approval.

Lyra trotted off out of the woods and bolted straight for her house, keeping her head low and hoping that nopony would stop to investigate her, and see the blood that was flecked over her face.

Cicero watched her go and chuckled to himself, "Cicero has an apprentice..."

The mad jester then looked off to the cabin that was home to the mare that had helped the Night Mother deliver the children of Sithis. Cicero grabbed a tree branch and gracefully swung himself like a gymnist up onto it. He then hopped from branch to branch as he made his way closer to the cabin atop the hill. Cicero then peered down from the tree he was hiding in and looked for the yellow mare. Cicero frowned as he scanned and found the pony named Fluttershy.

Fluttershy was being bullied by a couple of flying stallions. The two were shouting something at her that Cicero could not hear. Cicero was filled with anger at the sight of the one who so willingly helped the Night Mother being attacked on the street. Cicero almost leapt out of the tree right there, but managed to remember to change his form. Cicero breathed in deep and concentrated as he began casting the alteration spell to morph his body into a pony.

The dark red unicorn stallion jumped to the ground and landed on his hooves with a loud thud, catching the attention of the bullies. The two looked behind them and noticed Cicero, and his look of utter rage.

"Hey, check out this guy's hat." Laughed the first stallion.

"Yeah, looks like some kinda loony freak." The second joined in the laughter.

Cicero slowly advanced on the two pegasi, murder was all that was in his golden eyes, and the bullies were too stupid to see it, Fluttershy however seemed to notice the death stare Cicero had, because she shrank back even more than she had from the bullies tormenting.

"Hey, what are you doing freak?" The first stallion asked.

"Yeah get lost or else we--" The second started before Cicero lunged at him and cracked a fore hoof against the side of the bullies skull.

The second bully dropped like a rock, eyes rolling and blood dripping from his ear. Cicero looked over to the first one and grinned madly at the fear he now saw etched into his face.

"Come on fat boy, show Cicero what makes you think you are better than that kind young girl there." Venom dripped off the jester pony's voice.

The stallion attempted to fly away, only to have his wings stick to his side from a dark red aura that glowed around him. The stallion fell the few feet he had flown, and found he was unable to move, only stand there in front of the seething unicorn.

"Please.... Don't kill them..." Fluttershy whimpered at the sight of the stallion who lay on the ground already, bleeding.

"If it is your request then fine, but I will still discipline them..." Cicero said as he tucked the dagger he had just drawn away.

Cicero lifted the stallion's chin with his hoof, before turning around and winding up one of his back legs. The stallion screamed in horror as he was unable to move away from the powerful kick that collided with his jaw, shattering it and knocking him out as he flew .

"They did not cause you harm did they?" Cicero said, voice suddenly full of concern.

Fluttershy shook her head as she hid underneath her wings and cried. Cicero frowned at this and moved a hoof to her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. Fluttershy flinched away and squeaked in fear at the touch. Cicero then held his hoof back, as if he was burned and turned back toward the forest and made his way home.

On his way Cicero changed back to his natural form, but he did not hum the tune. He instead stomped through the forest, attracting many of the different predators. As they came one by one however, Cicero killed them, showing no mercy in his butchery of the animals as he left a trail of corpses back towards the sanctuary.

As Cicero entered the sanctuary he was greeted by Arcane Arts.

"Hello mother, she got there safely..." Cicero huffed in a depressed tone.

Arcane raised her eyebrow at this, "Did anything happen?"

"Well... Cicero saw the yellow mare that helped you deliver Sithis's children, and she was being bullied. I dispatched them, even refrained from killing them as she asked... But she was afraid of me." Cicero said dejectedly as he sat down on the floor.

"Well, I may have something that will cheer you up..." Arcane Arts said with a crafty smile.

Cicero looked into the mare's eyes, his own filled with wonder at what the Night Mother could have for him.

"We have a big task this time. This contract does not come from anypony from this world..." Arcane said with a smile.

"You couldn't possibly mean Sithis has ordered the death of someone?!" Cicero asked, his face losing all trace of sadness and instead becoming filled with glee.

"Yes, Sithis has asked that you go and kill a very special pony..." Arcane said warmly as she put a foreleg around Cicero's shoulder.

"Who! Who has Sithis called for to join him in the void?!" Cicero asked, his voice filled with excitement.

"Sithis has ordered for the death of the sun princess. You are to kill Celestia and allow the night to overtake this world." Arcane purred into Cicero's ear.

Cicero's smile stretched from ear to ear as he began a fit of laughter that shook his entire body.

Author's Note

I have been getting unbelievably side tracked lately. No less than fifteen attempts did I make to finally sit down and grind out this chapter. League of Legends was primarily to blame, but at least I finally managed to release this chapter. Next chapter will be done exclusively in Cicero's perspective as he infiltrates the Canterlot Castle.