Rising of Destruction

by Ivo

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Spike, Other
Length: 51526

A nightmare, a murder, a dark plan... Can Twilight and her friends stop the rebirth of destruction?

At Princess Celestias´ School for gifted Unicorns Twilight and her best friends Bleach and Silverleaf have no clue, that their halcyon days will be over soon.
But when a horrible nightmare haunts her, one of her best friends gets murdered and creepy shadows take an attempt on her life, Twilight slowly realizes, that she and her friends are just small pawns in a devilish plan to resurrect demonic and destructive powers old as the world.

An old book finally gives her a hint, what´s really going on.
But can she and her left friend stop the plans of the dark malevolent pony?
And are they able to stop the reawakening of the old demonial powers of destruction?
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Some informations by myself:

This story plays about one to two years before the happenings of the series. It won´t look like that, but in the end, this story will fit to the events of the series, even if I´m writing an alternative way Twilight and Co. met each other the first time.
Mentioning that, a warning: The first chapter is only with Twilight. The others of the mane 6 appear not until chapter 2!

My other story 'The Halcyon Days' plays in the past of this story and shows the childhood of Twilight, Bleach and Silverleaf, how they got friends, and so on. It also details the stories of their past they are talking about in this story. Though, it isn´t fatal if you haven´t read 'The Halcyon Days'. You can understand this story without having read it.
It only gives the story and the characters more profoundness.

Anyway, that´s all, at first. I hope you´ll enjoy reading my story!

Current state:

Published 2012-01-29 04:15:31 UTC
Last updated 2012-10-03 19:16:40 UTC

Prelude - Dreams

Rising of Destruction

Prelude – Dreams

It was a deserted place. Completely empty. No plants, no rocks, no life, nothing was there. The sun burned down heavily, turning everything into an arid wasteland.

The earth beneath her hooves was dusty and brown. The sky above her was hued in a menacing dark red. She didn´t feel well in this hostile place. There was nopony around, no one she could ask where she was and nothing to orient herself.
Her eyes wandered over the plain, searching for anything, but she couldn´t find anything. Of course, who wanted to live in a place like that! There was only silence and emptiness and heat!
She felt lost. Lost and lonely. She wished there would be at least one pony she could talk to! One pony to dispel her loneliness!
But her wish was denied.

Aimlessly, she wandered around. But how should she know, that she wasn´t running in circles? There was nothing, not even the tiniest rock, she could orient herself by!
She sighed. It was hopeless! There she was in the middle of nowhere, nothing around to orient herself and threatened by the never-ending heat of the ardent sun! There was no way to survive this! No way out of this empty hot red-brown hell!
She sighed in resignation and dropped to the ground. Her eyes filled with tears. So this is the end! she thought I will simply die of thirst, here, in this damned middle of nowhere! Nopony will ever find me! Maybe, at sometime far in the future, somepony will find my bones! Then, I´ll fetch up somewhere in a museum, staring at the visitors through my empty orbital cavities! Oh yeah, a really great future!...
Motionless she lay there, crying, sweating and waiting for her death.
But suddenly there was something in the distance that caught her attention.

She dried her tears and focused her bleary gaze. She wasn´t hallucinating, there was a faint glow on the horizon!
Slowly she rose to her hooves, trying not to interrupt her gaze on the strange glow. She feared that it might disappear when she blinked. At a rapid gallop, she ran towards the light and the closer she came, the brighter it shone. Suddenly, she felt something new. Hope! Hope to escape from this damned deathtrap, hope to find anypony she could talk to, hope to find anything living!
She ran faster and faster and the light was getting brighter and brighter. And soon, she was completely enveloped by light. She stopped. But the intensity of the light was still getting stronger. It was so bright that she had to shade her eyes with her hoof and squinted. And then, there was a bright flash.

Slowly, the light dimmed.

After a while, she slowly opened her eyes. She found herself in a dome with walls of shimmering light. Warm feelings suffused her body. She even could feel a slight warm breeze, stroking gently through her coat. It felt so much better than the loneliness she felt moments before! She looked around.
The dome wasn´t very large. It´s diameter and height was about fifteen meters. Beyond her hooves grew luscious green grass. Behind the shimmering light wall she could see the odd hostile wasteland she had been moments before.
She frowned.

This green oasis definitely was better than the desert out there, sure, but she still was in the middle of nowhere. Where have I gotten myself into? she asked herself, turning a small round in the dome.
It seems that if she walked through the light wall, she would get back on the outside. So she could decide: living forever in this lonely dome, where she at least had some food, or walking through an empty hostile desert, searching for an exit she couldn´t find.
“Nice choices!” she snorted.
Sighing, she lowered her head to graze a little and to get back some strength. The walk through the desert had cost her much energy. She had to rest now and - what was that?
Hadn´t there been a movement? She shook her head. This was impossible! There was no one around, excepting herself! She lowered her head again, but there it was again! A slight shadow, moving in her right canthus and disappearing, when she focused on it!
Frantically she lifted her head and nervously looked around. But there was nothing!
Am I getting crazy now?... “I really need some rest.” she murmured. “I should get some slee-EEAAAAAAAAH!” she yelled and felled a few steps back. She had turned back and wanted to lie down, but there suddenly was another pony - or better: the shadow of a pony - standing in front of her and staring at her!

With fearful eyes, she starred at the unknown stallion. Motionless, he stood there and stared at her.
His body had no exact contours and seemed to consist entirely of dark shadows. After the first scare had subsided she looked at him closer.
He really consisted completely of shadows! His body, his mane, his tail, they were nothing more than a dark mass of shadows! The only special things, she noticed, were his huge shadow wings and his horn. She frowned.
He´s an alicorn! she thought. She never heard of a male alicorn before.
She only knew the princess of her land, Celestia, and her sister Luna, who is metioned in many historical books. And, of course, Nightmare Moon, an alicorn of an old marestale. Some ponies say, Luna and Nightmare would be one pony, but that was ridiculous, unless they are schizophrenic...she shook her head and focused back at the stallion in front of her, before she lost herself in the stories of her books back at home. At the moment, she really had bigger problems!
Anyway, all in all, every alicorn she knew was a mare.
But alicorn was alicorn and she also knew about their powerful magic. Maybe he could get me out of this mess with it!

“Um…Hi there!” she greeted him. But he didn´t answer. He just stared at her.
“I um…was just surprised to see another pony here, so um…what are you doing here?” She waited. Still no answer. “Hello! Can you hear me?” Suddenly, still staring at her, he spread his wings and walked a few steps back, taking up a lurking attitude. Like a lion before he jumps at you to eat you up! a warning thought shouted in her mind. She shook her head. He had no reason to do this! It was ridiculous!
“Uh…Did I say something wrong?” she frowned. Again no answer. Just lurking. “I just wanted to ask you, if you could take me out of this mess, you know, the deadly desert out there and all and…” Now there was a reaction. He seemed to…laugh? “Hey, what´s so funny about that?” she asked. Then there was something moving outside the dome. She turned her head to face it.
More shadows!
And as they slowly entered the dome she noticed they were all… “More alicorns?”
With no haste they encircled her, taking up the same attitude as the first shadow. Now the fear came again. She was now surrounded by six creepy dark alicorn-shadows! They all looked like huge statues of material darkness. “Okay...now it´s really getting scary...” she said reluctant and tried to move back, but there was no exit anymore. She was totally surrounded by the six creepy shadows.

And then they took a step towards her...
And then another....
And then a third...

She was panicked now. The creepy shadows came closer with every step and there was no way to flee. And this wasn´t the only thing that frightened her. When the shadows got closer, she could swear to see an evil smirk in their faces and thought she would hear a devilish laugh in her head!
In this moment they pounced on her!
She screamed. She screamed loud and desperately. But no one could hear her!
They broke into her body, flooded her veins and tortured her with dark emotions! She cried out in agony and pain, again and again.
The world went black around her.
There were only the dark cravings, which forced her to ground. She felt hatred, but there was nothing she could hate. And that made it even worse. Then, she felt greed! She wanted to have anything in the world! Everything she could get! But there was nothing she could have!
Again and again, new cravings flooded her world of feelings. Desires, which nothing and nopony could satisfy. She bawled and trembled, streams of tears ran down her cheeks freely. She begged for relief and mercy. But for the dark shadow-alicorns there was no word called ‘mercy’!
Another wave of dark feelings flooded her.
Another agonized shriek escaped from her lungs.

And then, suddenly, it was over. The pain, the cravings, the shrieks.
She felt something new!
Love, harmony, faith, hope, safety, warmth, every positive emotion, she ever felt before! They eased the pain and expelled the shadows from her body. She heard a deep growl, when the shadows were displaced by the new feelings. Then, there was a last bright flash of warm emotions and the shadows were gone completely.
She sighted in relief.
After a while, she rose to her hooves again, still trembling from the impressions of the last moments. Her head ached. She took a front hoof to her head and groaned in pain. I hope this is over now! I don´t think I could stand one more rollercoaster of emotions like that.
She looked around. The meadow and the dome of light had disappeared.

Now, she found herself in another dome. But this one wasn´t made of shimmering light. It was built by pony hooves! And it was huge, very much bigger than the light one.
Its walls were made of a shining blue material she didn´t know. No! When she looked more closely, she recognized that they were made of glass...blue glass! And behind the blue glass she saw…water? No doubt! It was water! She saw some fishes swimming out there!
But how was this possible? Her eyes went up.
The whole building was supported by several dark-blue columns, which met at the ceiling. Well, exactly there was no ceiling. The top of the building had to lie above the water surface, because there was no roof and the water didn´t flood the room. She saw the sun above, shining down on her.
In the middle of the hexagonal dome, there was a big stone altar. And on the top of the altar, there was a giant transparent crystal. She frowned one more time.
What was this place and how did she come here?

As she got closer to the strange altar she noticed some old reliefs in its pedestal. She walked around the altar and looked at the pictures. There were exactly three of them.
The first showed her the land she had been several moments before. There was an empty land and, in the middle, there was the dome of light. She frowned again. It also showed the six alicorns, which had tortured her. On the picture, they tried to protect themselves against the light dome. But when they have to protect themselves against the light, why were they able to simply enter and attack me? she asked herself.
On the second picture, she saw the six alicorns again. This time, they were fighting against six other ponies. It looked as if the six other ponies were all normal earth ponies. She didn´t see any horns or wings. But still there was a magical glow around the six ponies. It seemed to be a hard fight. A fight for life and death!
She walked to the last picture.
Now she saw the dome she actually was inside. There were the glass walls, the altar and the crystal. The scene, it shows, was very dramatically. There was one of the six earth ponies before in front of the altar. The six alicorns attacked it from all sides. The big crystal was shining bright and it seemed that there were six shining spheres around it. On the altar in the picture she also saw a strange book. It glowed too.

She took a few steps back. Now that she was on the other side of the altar, she noticed the mysterious book lying closed on it. It was a simple book with a brown leather cover. The only special thing was the golden picture on its cover. It showed a circle with six spheres and twelve curious symbols, two in every sphere.
Confused, she looked to the ceiling. What does that all mean? After that inner question, she looked for an exit.
She found a huge twin gate right behind her…and boggled.
In front of the gate was a red-coated mare with a long green mane staring at her! How long was she standing there? She looked closer at the mare. Wasn´t that one of the ponies she saw on the pictures?
“Who…are you?” she asked the mare. But she got no answer. They both just stared at each other.
Then the red mare moved her lips. They formed only one silent word: Run!
She blinked - and the mare was gone. Before she realized what the red mare meant with that word, there was a noise behind her.

She gasped and felled a few steps back.
The book had opened and glowed in a dark light. But it was not the only thing glowing. There were six statues above her, one on every column, standing on stone plinth. They were all glowing. Why didn´t she recognize them earlier?
And as she realized, what they represented, her blood froze in her veins!
“Did you miss us?” a dark voice whispered in her head.
“N-no!” she stuttered. “T-t-that isn´t p-possible!”
“As you see: it IS!” the voice mocked and laughed.
Dark tendrils now flowed out of the six alicorn-statues, gathered and formed the dark alicorn-shadows she thought she would never see again. They laughed loud and cruel, until their leader stopped. “And now, revenge-time!” he yelled in her head.

She turned on her hoof and ran. She ran as fast as she could. The shadows swooped on her.
She ran straight to the gate, but the shadows were faster than her and obstructed her way. She avoided the first and sidestepped. She hardly fought her way to the gate, avoiding the other alicorn-shadows, and was already past the last of them, but then, a shadow-tendril snatched one of her hind legs and brought her down. She groaned when she landed hard on the ground.
“No! Please! No!” she begged and bawled when the shadows appeared in her gaze and surrounded her. Again she heard their horrifying laugh in her head. And over the laugh she could hear the mocking voice of their leader, yelling: “No restraint! NO MERCY!”
And then, they attacked.

“NOOOOOOOOOO!”

In this moment, she woke up…

...and the story begins...

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Ch.1 - The Beginning - Pt.2 - The Battlemage, The Egghead and The Expectant Mother

Chapter 1 – The Beginning

Part 2 – The Battlemage, The Egghead and The Expectant Mother

So you are the one…, somepony thought and narrowed its eyes. It was dark in the chamber. The curtains were closed and the bright light of the full moon outside hued everything in dark twilight. In the bed in front of the pony the blanket raised and lowered by a regular breath, coming from a deep sound sleep. It was such a peaceful scene... But one thing was completely wrong: There shouldn´t be only one single breath! There shouldn´t be a deep sound sleep! The only thing there should be, was a dead sleep! But still, in the face of all logical, the blanket raised and lowered, raised and lowered, again and again and again! It was absolutely sickening!

The anonymous pony simply sat there and watched the other pony sleeping. It felt their wrath, felt them trembling in the book under its hooves. They felt the presence, wanted to come out, wanted her! But the pony couldn´t free them now. It couldn´t simply open the book and let them attack her. If she was what the unknown thought she was, it would be suicidal for them! It couldn´t take that risk. Not yet. There was still the injury they took from her. And, in addition, their powers were still very weak. But they needed a victim, needed a body, they could torture with their dark cravings! And they needed a pony, which’s mind couldn´t resist them.

The unicorn´s horn glowed. It levitated the dagger from the leather belt around its hip in front of it. The sharp blade glittered metally in the twilight of the chamber. Sure, the unknown could simply kill her. That would be the easiest way. Without her, there would be nopony which could stop the unicorn´s plans. Slowly the pony placed the dagger above her chest where her heart supposed to be. Only one thought and the sharp point of the double-edged weapon would dig down to her core. It was so simple. So easy! She wouldn´t feel anything. Only the endless rising and lowering of the blanket would stop …

Then, the pony came to a point…

Slowly, the dagger levitated back to the leather belt and in its sheath. There was no blood on the silver gleaming metal. Enjoy this day!, the unknown unicorn thought and smirked an evil grin. Because from tomorrow you´ll walk through hell! With this inner promise the anonymous pony left Twilight Sparkles´ chamber just as it entered it – unrecognized and noiseless…

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The daily routine at Princess Celestias´ School for gifted Unicorns was the same for every student. At seven o´clock the first lesson began. Every lesson lasted for exactly fifty minutes. The next ten minutes were a short recess to prepare for the next lesson. At nine o´clock was morning break. At half past nine, lessons continued until lunch break at half past eleven. The lunch break lasted exactly one hour. At half past twelve, lessons continued. From that moment, it was different from day to day how long it lasts till school was over. After that, the students could pass their time as they liked. The most of the students did their homework at the library or at one of the lounges. On hot summer days, like also today, many of the students picnicked on the great meadow in front of the school pile or went shopping at the city.

But at the moment, it was short before seven o´clock. Twilight was on her way to her first lesson – Magical Physics. Her favorite subject. Wide smiling, she trotted through the second floor, heading for her class room. Finally, she reached the wooden door in the middle of the wide black and white marbled floor with the great green carpet and the light blue walls. With much élan she opened the door and entered the class room. The walls of the class room were also as blue as the sky. But, in marked contrast to the hallway, the floor was not marbled but laminated with a bright wood. On one side of the room, there was a big window, giving a nice sight at the garden in front of the school pile. At the very front, there was the teachers’ desk and a big blackboard. The students´ desks were five rows of benches with six desks per row. Between the second and third and the fifth and sixth desks was a small gap to walk through the rows easily.
Twilight headed for her desk in the middle of the second row. The most students were already there, chatted and waited for the teacher. Next to her desk she saw Bleach, beautiful as ever with his spotless snow-white coat and his long raven mane, falling around his right shoulder down to the bottom. A small black scrunchy tied his mane up at the height of his belly. Oh how she loved this unique style! Actually, he read something in a book and didn´t notice her. Eyeing him up, she sat down next to him. Now, he noticed her and looked up from his book, facing her shining purple eyes.

“Oh, good morning!” he greeted, smiled wide and looked her over. “You´re looking like a picture of health today, very much better than yesterday. You slept very well, I guess?” Twilight returned his smile and nodded. She really looked better this day. The bags under her eyes were gone, her face had back its natural color and her mane was brushed as neat as ever. Altogether, she looked simply wonderful. “Like a log. This tea, this ‘Soul-Refresher’, is a marvel!” she answered cheerful. Bleach raised an eyebrow. “What is a ‘Soul-Refresher’?” he asked. He didn´t know anything about his friends´ yesterday´s activities, so Twilight told him about her and Silverleafs´ spa-trip. “Silverleaf went to a spa with you? Our Silverleaf? Our Miss Can´t-sit-still-for-ten-minutes?” Twilight giggled. “Yes. I was also wondering, but I didn´t say anything. It was just what I needed. I think she went there just because of me.” But in reality, she thought something other…
“And she made this tea with her sister? And she used flowers she cultured for it? I never would have drunk that!” Now, Twilight just laughed. Silverleaf was a very good plant breeder, sure, but only for decorative purposes. In the past, she had always tried to combine magical spells with her flowers to create special teas and elixirs. Mostly, it had worked as wished. But, in the majority of cases, there also had been some…interesting side effects. And Bleach always was her favorite guinea pig. “You remember her ‘Super-Speed-Wonder-Tea’?” she asked still laughing. “Yeah, how should I forget that?” he replied less delighted. “I could move in super-speed for about one or two hours, but I could speak only in slow motion for one whole weak!” In the end, he had to giggle too. He remembered how he had chased Silverleaf through the entire school building until she had hidden herself in the mares´ bathroom. They talked and laughed at the old times and the pranks they played until the teacher, a dark brown unicorn-stallion, entered the room. Abruptly there was silence in the class room and the lesson began…

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Twilight never thought there could be only one lesson that bores her. And she also never thought it would be a lesson at her favorite subject! The teacher, Prof. Antinod, had a monotone voice and spoke very slowly, while he described the nature of magical energies – a theme she had in the first class!
“But now, let’s talk about magical transferring.” he then said as slowly as possible. “Every magical energy, whether it is from a spell or from a pony or another magical source, every one of them could be absorbed and transferred and…yes Bleach?” The dark-maned stallion lowered his hoof. “You mean it´s like my aura-magic?” he asked interested. He was the only one, who was interested in the lesson, because he was the only one, which´s primary magic based on magical energies, or better, their aura.

Bleach Auraknight was his full name. The name meant he came from a family that was able to see magical energies and their aura. It was complicate to explain, even for Twilight, but Bleach had the gift, to take these magical auras and to form them to spells a book never told to anypony. And there was another thing: The Auraknights were very famous for their great combat skills. It was a line of fighters. And primarily, it was a line of guardians. He was like a battlemage in these games: good at magic and an awesome dagger fighter. At the moment, he was a trainee to become one of Celestias´ personal guardians just as every Auraknight.
Twilight smiled. Silverleaf was right. She loved him. He was kind, bountiful, strong, intelligent, handsome and much more things she couldn´t list at the moment.

“Not at all, but it´s familiar.” the professor finally answered Bleachs´ question. “Granted, I don´t know exactly how your magic is working, but as far as I know, you´re able to transfer magical energies and their aura from the far, right?” Bleach nodded and Prof. Antinod continued: “Well, for normal unicorns like us it is not so easy. We have to make contact to the spell or the pony to transfer its energy. I prepared a practice for you.” With these words he got a few crystals out of his desk. “These crystals contain a small magical source.” he explained, “Your exercise is, to absorb the magical energy in these crystals. Then, you´ll absorb some magical energy of your desk neighbor and lead it into the crystal. But attention! Don´t absorb too much energy from your neighbor! Though, our body restores the loss of our magic instantly, but, after all, it´s still able that there are some negative feelings like headache or nausea. So be careful!” After that, he levitated one crystal to every student and the practice began.

Bleach only smiled. This exercise was a cakewalk for him. He blinked and changed his vision. His eyes changed color from dark blue to dark violet. Now, he saw everything in a dark blue touch. Only the magical energies and the auras which surrounded them had another color. The crystal in front of him, or better its energy inside, shone in a slight pulsating green. He looked around. Everywhere he could see faint glows in many different colors, surrounded by a pulsating aura. Also he saw the energies of his classmates, bright glows in different intensities, sphered by unsteady pulsating auras. Twilight´s energy made him squint. Her aura was the brightest he had ever seen. Sure, everybody knew her magical potency, but he was the only one, who really saw it. Her energy was as bright as a shining purple sun. It was not for nothing that she was Princess Celestias´ personal student.
He blinked and his gaze went back to the crystal in front of him. Pending his right hoof above the crystal, he concentrated and his horn began to glow. Slowly, the energy parted from the stone. In a thin trail of light, she levitated to his hoof, reached it and became a part of Bleach. He blinked, changed his vision back to normal-view and smiled contentedly. That was way too easy for him.

His gaze wandered to Twilight. Her eyes were closed and her right hoof rested on the crystal. It seemed not to be as easy for her as it was for him. She took a final deep breath, her horn glowed a bit brighter and then, she made it. Slowly, she opened her eyes, exhaled in relief and gave him a short smile.
“Ready for part two?” Bleach asked smiling. Twilight frowned. “You ain´t absorbed a part of my energy yet?” “Nope.” he smiled even wider. Then, as fast as a wink, he put a hoof on Twilight´s chest and absorbed a small part of her magical energy. “Till now.” he sang and looked deep into her shining purple eyes. “Now, a part of yours is mine.”
The purple unicorn gave a thunderstruck gasp when he suddenly put his hoof on her chest. She looked at him wide-eyed and instantly found herself lost in two deep blue oceans which were his eyes. She blushed and her heart fluttered. She felt it. He felt it. But it didn´t mind her. Even if there was a way to stop her heart fluttering and to hide her feelings, she wouldn´t go that way. She smiled sheepishly. Then, she also put her hoof on his chest, felt his heart beating. It beat a bit calmer than hers. Calmer, but also excited. “And now, a part of yours is mine.” she said softly and her words put her to the blush even more.
For a while, they just sat there, lost in each other’s eyes, feeling their hearts beating. If there weren´t the other students, the teacher or the lesson, Bleach possibly even would´ve leaned forward to flutter a small kiss on her cheek…or, maybe, her lips?..., he thought.
Both savored their short romantic moment, lost in each other’s eyes, feeling their hearts beating like never-ending ticking metronomes…
But then, a sudden touch on their necks broke the magic of the moment and brought them back to reality. “And now, a part of you two is mine!” a male voice sang gleeful. Bleach gave an annoyed sigh and rolled his eyes. Then he moved the foreign hoof off of his shoulder and faced its owner. “Oh, I hope I didn´t disturb you two!” the gray stallion said innocently. Lucien leaned over his desk, resting his head on his crossed forelegs, smiling a fake innocent smile. “I just was worried about you. You looked like you wanted to eat up each other with your eyes, so I brought you back to reality…”

Bleach snorted and turned back to his desk. Twilight just looked away, trying to hide her blush, but that didn´t help her very much. Some of the other students whispered secretly and giggled softly. He grimaced upset and covered his face with his mane to hide his own blush. He couldn´t help, but he loved her to death. And now, the whole school would talk about the Auraknight and the Princess´ personal student; fell in love with each other! Normally, he didn´t care about such scuttlebutt, but, in a way, it was simply annoying.
He shook his head and turned back to the lesson. Twilight did the same. They put their hooves on the crystals in front of them and made the last step of the exercise.

No one of both of them used the energy they absorbed from their partner to lead it into the crystal…

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Today, it was a short school day for the duo. Twilight and Bleach had only one lesson after lunch break, so their school finished at half past one. Side by side, they left the school building and headed for the garden. It was a beautiful sunny day and the possibilities, how to spend the afternoon, were endlessly. Twilight sighed with pleasure and enjoyed the warm sun shining down on her face.

“So…what do we want to do?” she asked. Bleach stopped and raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” Twilight turned back, faced him and frowned. “Don´t you want to spend the afternoon with me?” she asked with a touch of chagrin. “I thought, maybe, we could do something…together…” Now, he noticed his faux pas. “Oh!...No, no…I mean…Yeah, I would love to do something with you, but…” “But?...” He sighed. “I can´t…” “You can´t?” she frowned. He nodded. “Yes, I can´t. Today is Tuesday. And Tuesdays, I always have a combat training-section, remember?” She sighed in disappointment. “Yeah, I remember, but…can´t you skip it just this once?” He shook his head. “I´m sorry, but no, I can´t do that. My father would kill me!” Now, she was downcast. Bleach saw it and made a decision.
“Hey, don´t be down in the mouth! I want to ask you something.” She gave him a questioning look. “What do you want to know?” First he said nothing. After a while, he asked: “Can you…keep something for me?” “Yeah, sure.” she nodded. “What is it?” “But you have to give it back to me, okay?” he asked another question. “Promised!” she said smiling. “You don´t have to ask such…” she grew stiff by a sudden touch on her cheek.
Bleach quickly had leaned forward and planted a small kiss on her cheek. He took a step back and smiled wide. She blushed, right up to the ears, more than ever before in his presence. “Don´t forget to give it back…” he whispered in her ear, turned around and left for his training. He couldn´t believe he really did that! But he didn´t regret it. Not for anything in the world!

Twilight left speechless. Taken aback, she just stood there, blushing and gazing after him trotting away. Was this real? Was this a dream? No, it wasn´t a dream! She still felt the touch of his lips on her cheek. She put a hoof on her cheek and smiled. Don´t worry! You WILL get it back! Definitely!, she thought.
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE! How DARE you!” a voice behind her shouted and broke her rigidity. She frowned and turned around to face a sternly looking silver-coated mare. “How dare you to fall in love with Bleach without telling me instantly via Best-Friends-Mind-Network!” Twilight giggled. “I guess you heard about this morning?” Silverleaf didn´t answer but put one hoof on Twilight´s chest and looked deep in her eyes with an artificial longing look. “Oh Twilight Sparkle!” she said spurious highly dramatically. “My love for you is so deep! So ardent! Can´t you see it in my ocean-eyes? I swear it to myself, if there weren´t the other students, the teacher and this lesson, I would kiss you instantly, would lay down with you, kissing, snuggling, so tenderly, so passionately! And I would make love to you right here! It´d be so wild, so passionately, so…” “O…kay…” Twilight interrupted her smirking. “Now you´re overegging the pudding, Silv…” The green-maned mare just giggled. “You should be thankful I didn´t use the word I first had in mind.” she said and formed her lips to a silent ‘F’. Both giggled.
“But seriously now, I´m glad to see you found a way to make a first step. Just as I said: Where there´s love, there´s a way.” She smiled even wider. “And soon, you´ll be an expectant mother.” “Now, you are really overexaggerating!” Twilight laughed. “But mentioning that…” she said and came a bit closer to Silverleaf, whispering: “We have to talk…”

______________________________________________________________________

He avoided the attack in the last nick of time. Only one second later the tip of a dagger cut the air where his heart was before. One single black long hair slowly felled to the ground. He breathed heavily. That was close!
“You´re absent-minded.” the deep bass voice of a stallion said smiling. The two fighters on one of the wide green meadows of the big school garden parted. The voice´s owner was a big white stallion with a short dark blue mane. He wore a black surcoat with a yellow sun at the height of his heart – the sign of princess Celestia. Around his hip was a black belt with two sheaths for the two daggers he held in his hooves. He stood there on his hind legs, crossing his forelegs and looking sternly at the other stallion.
Bleach wore the same uniform as his father, but his one was white – the sign of an Auraknight-trainee. “I am not absent-minded!” he returned. His father just laughed and put his daggers back in their sheaths. “You assaulted me in such a stupid way! First you broke your protect-spell, and then you attacked me frontal without any attention to your defense and opened it like an amateur! First I thought, it would be a whizzy trap, but then…” he shook his head. Bleach also put his daggers away. “But I´m…” “Anyway…” his father interrupted him, “…you´re now nineteen years old and I know you exactly just as long. Do you really think, I wouldn´t recognize it when there´s something on your mind?”
“Can we go on now?” Bleach asked impatiently. “No.” his father simply replied. “It´s useless to train with you while you´re not concentrated. Anyway, your combat skills are way better than mine, we both know that. There´s nothing I could tell you, you wouldn´t know yet. Sit down and let´s talk. The morale is as important for an Auraknight as the physical performance.” With these words, he and Bleach sat down. “And now, tell me. What is on your mind?”

“Twilight Sparkle…” he said honestly after a while, blushing slightly.
“Ah! A filly!” his father said slowly and smiled wise. “You knew it, right?” His father nodded. “You know Antinod, that old chatterbox. He told us this morning about your exercise.” he winked. Bleach just snorted. “Means: Every teacher at this school is informed now!” “Don´t mind them. I´m only asking me: Why didn´t you skip my lesson? Today´s such a beautiful day! Wouldn´t you prefer to spend it with her than with your old man?” Bleach looked at him wide-eyed. “You would´ve killed me if I didn´t appear!” “But you could´ve asked me to postpone the lesson.” he replied. “I once was young too, you know? I would´ve comprehend it.” Bleach just nodded and looked to the ground.
”Anyway, I hope you won´t blame me if I say it, but I think Twilight is a good cohabitant for you. She´s kind, intelligent and, don´t blame me again that I say it, very good-looking. You two would be a handsome couple, there the teachers sing from the same hymn sheet.” “Dad!” Bleach laughed and blushed even more.

“Well, how´s Silverleaf doing?” he changed the topic. “I haven´t seen her for a long time.” Now, Bleach frowned. “Didn´t her class had PE with you this morning?” His father nodded. “Yes, they had. But, she excused herself. Something with her family.” he shrugged. Bleach raised an eyebrow. “But there was nothing with her family. Sure as death!” “Then why did she skip the lesson? That makes no sense, Silverleaf loves PE…”
Now Bleach smiled wide. “Well, Twi and I could only guess, but we think we know, what´s up with her. We already noticed that she´s a bit…different since her vacation.” “And what do you think is up with her, if you don´t mind my asking?” He smiled even wider. “OK, I´ll tell you. But you have to keep it secretly!” “Promised.” his father nodded. “Okay, listen carefully.” Bleach lowered his voice to whisper.

“We think, Silverleaf…”

______________________________________________________________________

“Now: What did you want to talk about?”

The last two hours, Twilight and Silverleaf had spent with a homework the silvery mare had had. A short tract about the mode of action of the Magical-Filtration-Principle. For Twilight it had been simple to understand. But explaining it to Silverleaf had been time-consuming…extremely time-consuming…
After their two-hours-sojourn, they finally had left the library and had been heading for the canteen. Silverleaf had been hungry and Twilight had had no objections against a small cup of coffee. “I can´t begin to tell you how sick I am of this library, now! Even my flowers couldn´t veneer this mass of books!” Silverleaf had complained. Twilight only had smiled as reply. For her, there was no ‘too much books’.

Now, they both sat in the great white marbled and empty canteen, a cup of coffee in front of Twilight and a rose-sandwich in front of Silverleaf. The most of the students were out in the city or the school garden to enjoy the sunny day. Through the big window of the canteen, they saw everywhere ponies picnicking, playing badminton or just laying in the grass and savoring the warm sun.
“Oh, nothing very important.” Twilight replied to the silver mares´ question. “I just wanted to ask you how your vacation trip to the southern coast was like. You wrote this beautiful postcard with the ‘beach-at-full-moon'-motive, remember? Looked like a nice place to relax.” Now Silverleaf smiled. “Oh yeah, it was really a beautiful location! We had very lots of fun! Diving, paragliding, soaring, it was simply stunning what you could do there! We had a wonderful small vacation cottage near the beach with everything the heart could wish for: balcony with ocean view, a big clean bathroom, a nice kitchen and, the most important, a very comfortable, smoothly as silk, big bed.” she said with a wink and took a bite of her sandwich.

Twilight giggled and took a sip of her coffee before she asked another question. “Mentioning that…how´s Nevio doing?” Nevio was Silverleaf´s coltfriend since…well, since a very long while, yet. He was a gentle dark brown earthpony with a shoulder-length black mane. Silverleaf met him the first time at a tennis competition and shaded the game. After that, they met more and more often and finally felled in love with each other. “Oh, he is doing very well. At the moment, he´s in Manehatten with his family, but he´ll come back tomorrow. I´m going to meet him at the station, so you and Bleach have to…entertain yourself.” she said and winked once more. The purple mare blushed and toyed with her cup absently.
Silverleaf giggled. “You two would be a handsome couple, do you know that? Everypony thinks so, maybe excluded Lucien, but don´t mind him.” “Yeah, I know…” she just replied. The silver unicorn frowned. “There is something on your mind. And it´s not Bleach.” she guessed. Twilight smiled. “You know me way too good.” “You can talk with me about everything, you know? I am your best friend.” “Yeah, I know…” she said.
She took another sip of her coffee. “Silv, can I ask you something?” she asked after a while. “Everything you want, Twi. Don´t hold back!” “Well then. I want to ask you…Are the rumors true?” Silverleaf snorted. “Rumors, shrumors…what is it this time?” “Well, rumors came up that…” she leaned forward and whispered it in her ear…

After that, Silverleaf was wide-eyed. Very wide-eyed. And slightly trembling. “I guess it´s true?” Twilight asked, rising an eyebrow. “Who. Told. You. That?” she asked, fighting not to lose her temper. Now, the purple unicorn smiled a winning smile. Silverleaf understood and exhaled her frustration. “You…guessed, right?” “I wouldn´t call it ‘guess’.” she smiled. “Druther ‘construing the clues’…” “But…”
“First clue…” she interrupted her. “…our trip to the spa yesterday. You remember your slip of the tongue? You definitely wanted to say, that you can´t go out for a tennis or volleyball match at your current condition, right?” “But…” “Second clue: You want to go more often to a spa? You of all ponies want to go to a spa? You, our sport fan? A little bit strange, don´t you think?” “But…” “And now, the third clue…” she said and pointed at the sandwich in front of Silverleaf, “That´s your third sandwich in the last hour! You never ate that much!”
The green-maned mare was trembling. “You…you…EGGHEAD!” she said and didn´t know, if she should laugh or smack her for her exorbitant intellect.

“And the fourth clue…” a soft voice broke the short silence and both mares turned to the entrance. “You skipped PE this morning! That with your family was such a stupid excuse! A doctors´ appointment I maybe would´ve bought from you. But that was simply ridiculous!” Silverleaf narrowed. “Yeah, you two are really fitting each other like a hand in a glove!” she said sarcastically. “The egghead and the exceptionally clever battlemage! I could write a whole book series about that!” Twilight and Bleach laughed and also Silverleaf joined.
“How did you know, where we are?” Twilight asked the Auraknight. “Didn´t know it.” he said honestly. “I just wanted to buy a cake. I was a bit hungry. And then, I heard you talking about the clues Twi and I discussed this morning.” “Aha…” “By the way…” Silverleaf interposed, “Shouldn´t you have your training right now?” Bleach smiled. “My father released me earlier today, because it´s such a beautiful day. Anyway, I´m a lil´ bit far ahead with my lessons. This one missed training wouldn´t kill me.” he explained.

“But back to topic now…” he continued and looked back to Silverleaf. “Congratulation! Both of you.” “Yeah, congratulation Silv!” Twilight joined smiling widely. A small tear appeared in Silverleaf´s smiling face. “Thank you two! Thank you very much.” Then, her gaze got a slight sad touch. “But this also means: Goodbye. Not yet, but soon. I´ll stay here at school till February. Then, I´ll open a small florist´s. I already found some interesting buildings here in Canterlot, but still…” “We´ll help you.” both said chorusing. “And before you say something against that: We´re your best friends! That goes without saying!” Twilight said smiling; using the words Silverleaf used the day before. She just nodded. “Thank you…”

Twilight smiled even wider and stretched out her right hoof. “For our friendship!” she said. Silverleaf giggled and also stretched her hoof, meeting Twilight´s in the middle. “For our hearts!” she said, remembering their old sign of their friendship. They both looked at Bleach, who was frowning. “Aren´t we a lil´ bit too old for that?” he asked. “Nah, come on!” Silverleaf said. “Don´t be such a spoiler!” He sighed, rolled his eyes and smiled. “Okay. But I do this just for you!” he said and stretched his hoof to meet the others in the middle. “For our souls!” he said.
“And our expectant mother!” Twilight and Bleach said chorusing and then, they all together lowered their still stretched hooves to the ground.
“From the ground…” they said together. Then, they raised their hooves over their heads.
“…our souls fly high!” And in a final step, they raised on their hind legs, turned around and stood back to back, their hooves still connected, and with a final “Together they´ll reach the sky!” they high-hoofed and sank back on their hooves.

After that, they never did it as a trio again…

______________________________________________________________________

Ch.1 - The Beginning - Pt.3 - Who and Why?

Chapter 1 – The Beginning

Part 3 - Who and Why?

The door was closed, the moon high in the sky and the dark twilight, created by the closed curtains, was the perfect overture for the sinister symphony that was going to be played. Peaceful regular breaths, coming from a harmonious sleep, were the first notes in its score of dissonance and pain. A devilish smirk, a glowing horn, a levitating book and the dark ones within…everything was perfect!

Every single instrument of its demonial orchestra was ready to play its part! The unknown giggled in a thrill of anticipation. The unicorn chose its victim very carefully. Well, in the end, it had had only two possibilities if it wanted to weaken Twilights´ mind. Sure, the unknown could simply murder one of the other students to strengthen their powers. But Twilight was an unbelievable great power source! With her, the dark ones would straighten even faster and would be ready for their resurrection, immediately! It was one death for hundreds! How generous I am! it thought smirking. But her mind was still too strong for them, so the unicorn had to weaken it! And how could it do this better than murdering one of her best friends?

Anyway, Twilights´ friend in the bed in front of the unknown had no idea that its last hour had begun. The victim was ready to scream its mind and life out of its body and to fit its beautiful agonized cries into the dark hymn.
Well, time to turn the music up!, the unknown thought, raised its hooves and intensified the glow of its horn. Shortly after that, a blue glimmer covered the door, the ceiling, the window – everything in the small chamber. The spell of quietness that prevented every single noise from escaping out of the room was ready.

Now, the unknown opened the book. And here are the musicians!
The unicorns´ horn glowed more intense again. After that, the book in front of it glowed in a faint dark light. It smirked even wider when the dark ones left the book in a thin dark tendril and wiggled straight to the bed. Finally, they reached their victim and, like smoke, it inhaled them. A short cough announced the interesting part of the dissonant composition. This time, nothing would go wrong! This time, they would break their victims´ mind! There was no doubt! Sure, Twilights´ friends had both strong minds, but this one should be the perfect choice! Strong and animated, but weak and helpless at the same time!

The first few moments, nothing happened, but then, there was a short twitch in the eyes of the pony in the bed. Soon, it slightly shivered with fear. They began! The dark unicorn grinned even wider. This was a symphony just to his liking!
More and more notes were played now. More and more sounds joined the dark hymn of death! After a while, a slight mutter came from the pony in the bed. “Who are you?” it asked low-voiced and scared. “Get away!” Then, the victim wriggled in its bed, dropping the blanket to the ground. “No! Please! Get away! Please!” Its muttering got a little bit louder. “No! Please! Have mercy!” “The only mercy they know is killing mercy, honey pie!” the unknown giggled. “Agonizingly slow killing mercy!”
Now, tears appeared in the victims´ eyes and ran down its cheeks freely. It sobbed and wriggled more intense, started sweating and trembled in fear for its life. Crying turned into bawling now. They tormented their victim, destroyed its mind piece by piece. Mumbles turned into low screams and announced the nearing finale the dark unicorn was waiting for so longingly! Every little sound, every single scream, every sign of pain increased its ecstasy!

And then, the victims´ mind broke.

The grand finale started with an earsplitting shriek of pain that let the dark unicorn double-check the spell of quietness. The dark ones now flooded their victims´ body, absorbed its energy, blew its veins and destroyed its organs and everything inside the pony. Wide-eyed it screamed out its horrendous pain, heavily struggling in its bed, its face a mask of unbelievable pain and deadly terror!
The dark unicorn only laughed, loud, cruel, sadistic, enjoying every single note of the deadly melody! It increased its laugh with every single scream, every teardrop, every sign of pain, every begging for mercy. Oh how it loved this composition! It savored every single second, every moment till the end. And the end came closer with every scream!
The next and, hitherto, loudest scream told the unicorn that the dark ones now had destroyed nearly every single organ which wasn´t existential. And then, at the highest point of its laugh and its victims´ screams, the deadly hymn ended. One final last scream and then, the dark ones shredded their victims´ heart.
Suddenly, there was silence. The screams still echoed in the dark unicorns´ ears and it enjoyed it! It looked over the victim. A thin trail of blood ran out of its muzzle. It looked at its murder wide-eyed, the horror of the last moments in its face. One last spark of life in its eyes asked: Why?

The unknown unicorn just giggled devilish as the last spark in the golden eyes of Silverleaf disappeared…

______________________________________________________________________

It was a typical summer day…again. It was sunny, hot, not one single cloud in the sky…it was simply the perfect day for every outdoor activity!
At four o´clock in the afternoon, the most students already had left the school pile and headed for the city or the great meadows of the school garden, fighting for the best places for picnicking. And also a trio of two ponies and one small purple dragon did so.

“Well, let´s better check the list one last time. Eventually you forgot something.” Spike suggested while they were walking through the garden and heading for the city. He hauled a small handbarrow to transport the books he was going to get for his two companions. “In Bleachs´ case, I think, it wouldn´t be that problem. But I don´t want to hear your lament again, Twilight! You remember last time you forgot a book?” “Yes. And I´m sorry for that.” she replied smiling sheepishly.
“Well, here we go: we have ‘Advanced Magic Part VIII – Magical Recirculation’, ‘Advanced Protective Spells Part III’, ‘The Legend of the last Guardian Part IV’, ‘The Chronicles of the Bearded Part X’ aaaaaand…” he frowned and looked amused at Twilight. “’The life of Robert Colterson’?”
Bleach instantly laughed. “You haven´t any firewood anymore, I guess?” he quipped. “Then it´s really a good choice! That book burns very well!” Twilight narrowed her eyes and smirked at him. “As well as your saucy posters of Sapphire Shores and Filly Gaga would burn?” she hit back cocking an eyebrow. Bleach just giggled. “Touché!”
“If you´re ready could we go back to topic?” the baby dragon asked impatiently. Both stopped necking each other and nodded. “I am missing nothing.” Twilight said. “Me neither.” Bleach added. Spike smiled and nodded. “All right! See ya later!” he said and off he went. Twilight and Bleach left alone.

“So…what do we want to do?” Bleach asked. The day before, Silverleaf had mentioned that she was going to spend the day with her coltfriend Nevio, so they both could spend the afternoon together. “Oh, I don´t know…” as long as we do it together, everything is fine! she added silently. “Well, there are plentiful things we could do. We can go to a café or go window-shopping or go to that concert in the marketplace or…” “…or just take a walk through the park?” she asked. He smiled. “At your desire!” She smiled back and walked a little closer to him.

Bleach lost himself in thoughts. He imagined the park with its small alleys, the colorful meadows, the deep blue lake, all the beauties of nature and, first of all, the beauty at his side!
In his imagination, they both were alone between the trees and flowers, looking deep into each other’s eyes. “Twilight, I…I never dared to tell you, but…here we are and…Twilight, I…I love you…” She smiled wide happily, looking at him with her shining purple eyes. “I…I love you too, Bleach.” she said. And then her eyes closed and her lips came closer to his. He also closed his eyes, also moving his lips towards hers and…

“Hey, look!” the voice of Twilight, the real Twilight, not the one in his mind, broke his daydream. He shook his head and needed a moment to find back to reality. The purple mare at his side was pointing at something in the far. Bleachs´ gaze followed her hoof and he saw… “Hey, isn´t that…”

______________________________________________________________________

Alone, the brown stallion walked along the way that led to the school pile. He looked worried. His gaze was absent, but his thoughts were focused on the things that were important. Well, there was only one ‘thing’ that was important for him at the moment. There was only one pony, he was thinking about, only the one mare, he was worrying about. He couldn´t tell, what exactly it was, but he had a misgiving.
Silverleaf never was late! She would never break or forget an appointment! Especially if it had to do something with him!
What if something happened to her? What if she had an accident! What if somepony kidnapped her! What if… he shook his head. You´re worrying too much, Nevio! Silverleafs´ friend thought for himself. You´ll see everything is fine! Maybe she is just a little bit sick. Maybe she just had to vomit and stays in her bed the day to rest, just like in her first weeks of pregnancy! Everything is fine! Don´t worry! You´ll see, soon you are a happy father of one or two cute little foals! The thought about that made him smile.
First, he was totally shocked, when Silverleaf told him about her pregnancy. Sure, they thought about that before. They always talked about having a family with one or two little foals, but, in the moment she told him, it was just so…abruptly.
But, in the end, he was just happy. His little world was perfect! The only thing missing at the moment was a small kiss from his beautiful Silverleaf!...

Nevio never kissed her again…

His perfect world was going to shatter…

______________________________________________________________________

“Nevio!” Bleach shouted for him. The absent look of the brown stallion disappeared and he looked around. He recognized Bleach and Twilight and trotted over to them. “Hey you two!” he greeted them. “Have you seen Silverleaf?” Both frowned and glanced at each other. “Won´t she met you at the station?” the purple mare asked. “Yes, but I searched at the whole station and in the proximity. No Silverleaf anywhere. I hope she´s all right. I´m very worried…” “I can well believe it.” Bleach said bland smiling and nodded. “Mind you, she´s pregnant. Needless to say, that you as father-to-be are worried about your filly and your foal. I think, it wouldn´t be different for me in your position and...” “Wait a second…You two know about her pregnancy? She promised me to keep it secretly to surprise you two when I´m back!” “Oh, don´t blame her!” Twilight calmed him sheepishly smiling. “We…kinda…found it out for ourselves. She didn´t tell us anything. We…” A shout behind them interrupted her. “Bleach! Twilight!”

They turned around and saw… ”Dad?” Bleach asked confused. “What are you doing here? Shouldn´t you teach PE at this time?” The white stallion with the black surcoat trotted over to them, a blank look in his face. Bleach frowned even more. He knew his father enough to know: This isn´t a good omen. “And why in the name of Celestia are you wearing your uniform? You´re not in duty! You wear this only during protecting Celestia or at our training!”
His gaze became a slight sad touch which stung Bleach a little bit. No, something definitely was wrong! “Hello Bleach. Twilight…Nevio…” there was slight pain when he spoke the last name. “I got…bad news for you…” “Bad news?” his son asked. I knew it! he thought grimly. “What is it?” added Twilight. “Is it…about…Silverleaf?” Nevio asked hesitantly and Bleachs´ father nodded. “It´s not easy for me to tell you…I hate being bringer of bad news, but…” “For God´s sake!” Bleach rolled his eyes impatiently. “Can you speak plain English, please?” His father looked at him. “I´m sorry, but…” he took a final breathe. “I am really in duty. Since this morning, to be exact. And not as a protector of the princess…”
Bleachs´ eyes widened. There was only one single case an Auraknight was in duty besides protecting! The case when somepony got… “Who?” he asked fearing the answer. Oh, please in the name of all Equestria don´t say… “Silverleaf…”

Bleachs´ heart skipped a beat.

Then, he ran. He ran straight back to the school pile. He wanted to see it! He wanted to see this very very very bad joke! But then, he remembered that his father was never joking! Not in these things! But he wished he was! Just this once! Please!
“Bleach!” Twilight and Nevio shouted behind him and followed him. “Wait for us! What does that all mean? BLEACH!”
He didn´t stop.

His father left alone. His head sank to the ground. It was much heavier than he thought it would be. A small tear appeared in his eye, slowly running down his cheek. “I´m sorry…” he whispered…

______________________________________________________________________

It was no joke! She lay in her bed, the golden eyes, once full of life, were opened wide. Her face was a mask of pain, enunciating the ineffable torment she underwent in her last moments of life. A thin trail of blood ran out of her mouth.

Bleach closed his eyes, sat down and looked away, feeling tears coming up in his eyes. He tried to choke them back, tried to stay strong in the face of death and the dead pony in front of him. But the terrible fact, that this pony was since years one of his best friends, declared his defeat against the tears. He gave a short gasp and let them fall as they came. They ran down his cheeks, dropping to the ground beneath his hooves.
After a while of silent crying, he looked around. Twilight sat at his side, pressing her face into his shoulder and had broken into a passion of tears, drenching his coat with them. He embraced her and slightly stroke through her mane, trying to comfort her. Silverleaf had been their best friend. They had done nearly everything together. And now, there was nothing they could do together anymore! No more fun together! No more laughing together! Nothing…
And even more than himself and Twilight, it hurt Nevio. The brown stallion, who was, no, who had been Silverleafs coltfriend, was a wreck! He had gone down on the ground, was bawling inconsolably and cried out her name again and again. It was unbelievable painful for Bleach to see the usually so happy and buoyant stallion like this. His perfect world had been shattered in just one single moment. He lost everything that had been important for him! His tears wouldn´t dry fast. He had lost his filly, lost his love, lost his foal…and all just from one second to the next!
New tears came up at the thought of that. It wasn´t only one life that had gone, no, it were two! Or, maybe, three! Nobody would ever know it!

A few guards were around to keep the bystanders on distance. Some of the guards tried to comfort Nevio, but every try seemed to make it even worse for him. In front of the entrance to Silverleafs´ chamber stood two guards, motionless like statues as ever.

“I´m sorry…” a deep voice beneath him said compassionately, but Bleach only shook his head. “It´s not your fault…no need to apologize…” he replied low-voiced. “I…just want to know…Why?” This was the question that was in his head the whole time since he saw her dead body. Why she had to die? What did she do to deserve this? Nothing! That was, what she did to deserve death! Nothing! She was one of the kindest souls he ever met in his life! Sure, sometimes she was a little bit cheeky, as bold as a brass, to be honest, but was that a reason to kill her? No, it wasn´t!
The thoughts raised his anger. Inside of him, there was a strange mix of deep sadness, pain and unbelievable rage. “And, even more important: WHO?” he asked slightly trembling. Who would kill a soul as kind as Silverleaf? And, over and over: why?
His father shook his head. “We can´t say at this moment. Were still perpetuating evidences, but, to be honest, there are not many of them.” Bleach said nothing to that. Murder was a rare crime in Equestria and in the majority of cases they were exactly involuntary ponyslaughter. Or the murder couldn’t bear his guilty conscience and handed himself in. But this case wasn´t like them, he felt it! Whoever murdered her; he or she tormented her and wanted to make her death as painful and horrible as possible! That was, at least, what Silverleafs´ eyes told him…
“I also found some magical remains.” Now, Bleach was keen-eared. “Nothing very helpful, but…” “Can you show me?” he asked. His father nodded. “Okay, but don´t have any hope to find anything I hadn´t found yet.” To be honest, Bleach just wanted to do anything! He couldn´t just sit there crying and doing nothing to find Silverleafs´ murder!

“Sorry that I have to steal you this shoulder.” he whispered in Twilights´ ear. She was still in his embrace, her head resting on his shoulder and her tears still streaming down her cheeks. Sobbing, she slowly looked up at him with watery purple eyes. He tried a slight comforting smile. “I just want to see if I can figure out what exactly happened to her, okay?” She nodded slightly, mumbling a low “Okay.” He shortly nuzzled her and then, he released her from his hug and rose to his hooves. “Try to calm Nevio a bit.” He said softly. “He needs somepony at his side now, okay? Misery loves company.” Twilight only nodded and trotted over to the brown stallion. Bleachs´ gaze rested at him.
He blinked and changed his vision to aura-spectrum. It was just as he thought, but it shocked him slightly anyway. Nevios´ aura pulsated in a very dark blue, mixed with a deep black – the aura of a potential suicide victim!
“Don´t worry. We´ll take care of him.” his father tried to assuage his sorrows about Nevio.

“Come, I´ll show you, what I had found…”

______________________________________________________________________

She was right! He had to burn them! Or, at least, he had to trash them. He narrowed his eyes, inspecting the humps on the picture at the ceiling. Why did he ever like them? He always liked just one single mare out there! So why he had a poster, more specifically, a whole collection that only reflected a statue of porcelain perfection arisen from the flesh-worshiping society all around them? And why he directly placed it above his bed? He sighed and turned in his bed, averting his gaze from the poster of Sapphire Shores and her humps.
This all really didn´t help him to dismiss his thoughts about today! There were too many things happened, too many sorrows he had. One of his best friends got murdered! There was no way to sleep! There was even no way to just sit still for ten minutes! The only thing there was, were the sorrows about the things, he saw this afternoon!

Again, Bleach thought about the afternoon and the things he saw in Silverleafs´ chamber. The first thing, he had noticed when he had investigated her room with his aura-vision, had been the flowers all around. Well, this really had been nothing special. Silverleaf had been a florist. Of course, there had been many flowers in her room. Some of them had had faint pulsating magical glows inside. It had seemed to him, that she never had stopped trying to combine her magic with her flowers. The thought, that all the roses, violets, tulips, pinks and orchids soon will be just white lilies, depressed him a little bit.
His thoughts went on, replaying the next detail, he had seen. There had been pieces of a faint blue glowing on the walls, the ceiling and everywhere he had looked at. He had token one of them with his magic and had levitated it in front of him to research its magical elements. In the end, he had found out, it had been remains of a spell of quietness. It must have been a very strong one to protect every noise from breaking out. Normally, a spell of quietness a student uses only decreased noises they´re making. Much affected by very passionately young couples and by several parties.
Anyway, it had showed to him: Silverleafs´ murder had known, that she would scream in suffering and pain. He had known her death would be painful! Thinking about that raised his anger again and again!

The next thing his father had showed to him had been a faint white magical shimmer near the entrance. He had squinted, but first, he hadn´t seen anything. But then he had noticed small white fluffs, wafting in the air. He also had inspected their magical elements. It had been a spell on the basis of time and space. He never had seen such a spell so he had asked his father. “It´s a teleportation-spell.” he had answered. “Seems to be the way the murder entered the room. I also found magical remains of that spell in the library. Looks like this had been his initial point. We also searched for some evidences there, but haven´t found anything yet.” After that, they had finished. That two spells had been the only spells, the murder had used. Bleach had looked over the room one last time. He had trotted over to Silverleafs´ dead body and sighing he had closed her eyes for the one last time, feeling new tears coming up. He just had stared at her dead body, saying goodbye to the colorless body in his aura-vision. In this moment, he had noticed two things:

“Dad?” he asked for him and his father had trotted over to him, asking: “What is it? Have you found something interesting?” “I´m not sure…but have you recognized yet, that her body is colorless? I mean…shouldn´t there be her energy?” “You know that our energies vanish if we´re dying, don´t you?” his father had asked frowning. “Yeah, but not instantly, remember? Our aura disappears instantly with death, that´s true, but our magical energies need two to three days to vanish! At least, the energy of unicorns like her. An earth- or pegasuspony looses his magical energy in just one day, because they haven´t as much as we have and weren´t able to use it!” “You mean…” Bleach had nodded. “Something had absorbed her energy!” “And why?” Bleach had shrugged. “I don´t know. Isn´t that your job to figure that out?” His father only had sighed, rolling his eyes.
“Anyway, there´s something other, I found.” he had said, pointing at Silverleafs´ muzzle. It had been hard, to see it, but there had been a very slight black shimmering smoke, coming out of her mouth and nose. If Bleach not had looked over her one last time, he never would´ve found it. His father had frowned. “What is that?” “I don´t know…it´s magical, but not familiar to me.” They both had token a part of the black magical remains and had inspected them. But no one of them had found out, what it had been. They had saved their remains of the black spell in two of the small crystals his father had used to save the other magical evidences. So they could research for the mysterious spell later without fearing, that it vanishes.

Finally, they had left the room. Twilight and Nevio had already left the crime scene. Bleach hadn´t seen one of them. “I´ll launch an autopsy instantly.” Bleachs´ father then had said, turning back to normal-vision. “Whatever this black spell is, I´m sure it killed her from inside. So we may are able to say, what exactly killed her.” Bleach had nodded and had promised not to tell Twilight or Nevio. They wouldn´t have been very happy to hear about an autopsy for Silverleaf.

After that, he had left to look for Twilight and Nevio, but he hadn´t found them, so he had gone to his chamber. And so, the story ended at the point, where he was now – in his bed. It was late at night now and he still found no way to sleep!
His primary sorrow now was Twilight. Nevio, he at least found out, stayed the night in one of the empty chambers of the school, protected from himself by a few guards. Of course, also Silverleafs´ family had been informed yet. Bleach didn´t know their reaction, but he was sure, that there were tears right at this moment. And there was nothing he could do to bring relief to them! Nothing he could do, to find her murder! But there must be anything! He looked at the crystal his father gave him and sighed. If he at least would know, what spell this was! But he had to wait until tomorrow to ask Mrs. Bookheart for some books about old and black magic.

He sighed again and his gaze wandered back to the poster above him. I really have to trash them! Maybe Twilight will help me to take some new photos for the wall! Maybe some photos of her…with the park as scene…or…Oh for God´s sake! He sat up in his bed, starring frustrated at the crystal with the black spell, changing to aura-vision. “What the hay are you? And what had you done with Silverleaf? And who had used you? And WHY?” he shouted at the crystal, of course without getting an answer. He sighed frustrated and got out of his bed. He opened his wardrobe and took the white surcoat and the belt with his daggers. He put them on and went to the door. If he can´t sleep, he at least could train a little bit for himself! Or just take some fresh air! Seethed with anger, he opened his door and had to squint instantly, protecting his eyes with his hoof and giving a short gasp of pain. “What the…”

“Oh my, I´m sorry…” a mares´ voice said depressed. “Am I looking that bad?” Bleach blinked and changed back to his normal view. “What? Looking bad? No, no, everything is fine…Just forgotten to change my vision.” He shook his head and looked at the mare in front of him. “Whew…you are…bright!” he said slightly smiling. Twilights´ bright magical potency blinded him every time he saw it in the wrong spectrum. Gradually, he got used to it, if he was prepared. But he always hated it, when she surprised him like that. “Thank you…” she answered cheerless.

Now he looked closer at her. Her eyes were bloodshot and watery. She had cried a lot, he guessed. “I guess you can´t sleep, too?” She nodded. “It´s just so…horrible! I just can´t stop thinking about her! We had done so much together, I…” she sighed. “I just can´t believe that she´s gone! That she´s never coming back, never hanging around with us anymore!” “Me neither.” he said, also sighing. “It feels just…I don´t know. I really don´t know what to feel at the moment. There´s so much, sadness, pain, rage, nostalgia, dejection, emptiness…” he broke himself. He could go on with this for hours. “I just want to know: Why?” Twilight said sadly. “Why does somepony murder her? Why does somepony kill an innocent soul like her? She wouldn´t have hurt a fly! She was always so kind, so gently, so amiable! And she was…she was…” she sobbed. Her eyes welled up with tears again. She tried to choke them back, but Bleach saw, it was useless. The only thing he could do, was putting his hooves around her. She pressed her head against his chest and the tears started rolling down her cheeks. “She was PREGNANT!” she cried out loud. “She was going to have a family! Who is killing an innocent filly that´s going to have a foal! Who would be so cruel? WHO? And why?”

They sat there for a while. Bleach couldn´t tell, how long exactly he sat there on the floor in front of his door, holding a bitterly crying Twilight in his embrace. He didn´t say anything. He only held her tight and let her vent herself in a flood of tears, stroking gently through her mane just as he did it in the afternoon.
As time drew on, her tears dried up. After that, she just sobbed for a while but soon, her sobbing died down. She looked up at him, starring in Bleachs´ ocean-eyes. She smiled slightly, one last tear running down her cheek. “Thank you.” she just said. “Feeling better now?” he asked softly and, to his delight, she nodded slightly and smiled a bit wider. “Yes. I think I just needed…this, I mean…having a good cry and…your embrace and all…” she slightly blushed in embarrassment. He smiled back, drying her last tear. “You´re welcome anytime!” She giggled low and blushed even more.
He released her from his embrace and they both rose to their hooves again. She pawed the ground, sheepishly looking away from him. “So…I think…because we both can´t sleep and…well, I thought…I know, it´s late, but…” Bleach giggled. She looked so cute in her sheepishness! “…there is still a walk we have to take?” he finished her sentence. She smiled and nodded, looking back at him. “Are you…interested?” He gave a short laugh. “I am more than interested! It would be a pleasure for me!”

And so, side by side, comforting each other with their togetherness, they went on their night walk…

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Ch.1 - The Beginning - Pt.4 - A Nightmare Come True

Chapter 1 – The Beginning

Part 4 – A Nightmare Come True

It just stood there, looking through the window, observing. Shimmering moonlight flooded the room and created the silvery twilight it loved so much! Like a silken veil it surrounded the pony. The books´ golden signs on the glassy table next to it shimmered in the silver light.

The dark ones got stronger, much stronger, last night! Their powers grew! But they got back their old ancient powers nowhere near! They pulsated in the book, wanted to come out, wanted their next victim! The next one, they could torture! And, at the will of them, it would be a very special purple mare, called ‘Twilight Sparkle’!
“Don´t worry, my little pretties!” it said as it would speak to a little child. “Soon, you´ll get her! Don´t worry, don´t worry…” it lowered its voice to whispers. “But first, you´ll have to eat the soup. And after that, you´ll get her as the main course…”

The dark unicorn giggled devilish and its gaze wandered back to the two creatures it was observing. Peaceful huggling together, comforting each other with their presence, simply savoring their togetherness, they lay on the big meadow under a tree in front of the school pile. She was sleeping and he slightly dozing. It narrowed its eyes, looking at her. Yeah! Enjoy it! Savor the warm body at your side! The calm steady beat of his soft pure heart… Enjoy it and cry even more, when I make it stop beating! Cry, when I´m taking him away from you! Cry and lose your mind in your anguish of despair!

It smirked. Everything was just as planned! Sure, it would be easier for the dark unicorn to wait for the next night and kill him at his chamber. But that damned Bleach had a too wide and calming influence on her. The more time he got to comfort her, the more and faster her mind restores itself! Even if she had to bear the loss of her second friend, her mind would be still a tough nut to crack! The weaker her mind was the better!
Anyway, they both had acted as it thought. They both couldn´t sleep that night. Of course, who would sleep like a baby while his mind was invaded by the murder of one of his best friends? And, just as it thought, Bleach couldn´t sit still and went out for some fresh air. And Twilight had joined him, because she needed the comfort of her loved one.

Now, the only thing it had to do was waiting. It would kill him here, at the library. Everything was prepared. The only thing missing was the victim. But soon, it would decoy Bleach into its deathtrap! He only had to change into his aura-vision. He would see the dark power, streaming from the book and wouldn´t resist inspecting it. Whether he did that with or without Twilight was unimportant. He was the victim!
Anyway, the unicorn knew he would change to his aura-vision! Sure as death! It was his nature! Checking the surrounding, playing the big watchdog and babysitter for his cutie wutie little Twilight!
It snorted contemptuously. You´re so pathetic! After this night, there will be no young Auraknight anymore! In the best case, Twilight would follow him and he would die a miserable death direct in front of her eyes, screaming his soul out, maybe whispering a poignant ‘I love you!’ with his last breath! Oh, only thinking about it sent pleasant chills down its spine! A great show was going to start and the dark unicorn got a place in the first row!

But actually, it still had to wait and observe for the perfect moment to lead them into Bleachs´ deathtrap…

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The door slammed hard against the wall when he hastily burst into the room. One of the observing guards had informed him instantly about the situation and he came just as fast as he could.

“In the name of Princess Celestia, stop with this nonsense right now!” he shouted. “No! Who allowed you to be in charge of me and my life?” “As royal guard and, moreover, an Auraknight of the princess I command you: Move away from that window, RIGHT NOW!” “NO!” the other one yelled back. “It is MY decision! MY will to follow her! You can´t keep me away from her embrace!” “And what is about your friends? Your family? Your parents, grand-parents, brothers and sisters and I don´t know what all? How do you want to explain your acting to them?”

Sighing, Nevios´ head sank to the ground. The window of the small chamber was opened wide. A fresh summer night breeze silently played with the dark blue curtains and his shoulder-length black mane. The brown stallion that had been Silverleafs´ coltfriend stood on the edge of the small windowsill, ready to jump and follow his loved filly into death. In the end… so Bleachs´ father thought …a chamber in the tenth floor really wasn´t the most intelligent idea…
He took a deep breath to calm himself a little bit. With authority, he wouldn´t go very far. “Please, come to your senses! I know you lost so much, but…” He said with a calming voice and looked deep into the brown stallions´ eyes. “…suicide isn´t a solution! Do you really think she would want you to follow her? Do you really think she wants you to just trash your life for her?”
“What do you know what she wants and not wants? You don´t know her a bit!” he snapped.
“But I at least would say I knew her good enough to be sure, that she would want you to go on living your life! There are so many things to live for, so many things you could do! You´re young and there is a whole world you can explore!”
“Why exploring a world without a pony to share it?” Nevio asked bitterly. “The only thing I had been living for is gone…I lost everything in my life! My love, my foal, everything, that was important to me! Now there´s nothing but emptiness!” he said crying.
“But this emptiness can be filled. Of course, there still would be a scar, but there are so many ponies around you which are ready to fix you! Ponies to comfort you!” “There´s no pony who could fix or comfort me!” he said sobbing. “No pony excepting one…” Bleachs´ father sighed about Nevios´ bitterness. “Listen, Nevio. I…I know how you feel, but…” “KNOW HOW I FEEL?” he snapped crying. “How should you know how I feel? How should you know how it feels to lose everything! To lose everything, that´s important to you?” “I…” “NO!” he yelled and rose to his hindlegs “You don´t know, how I´m feeling! Nopony knows!” “Nevio, please, don´t do it!” For a while, there was a strained silence. They only looked at each other. Nevio exhaled, whispering: “I´m sorry…” And then, he let himself fall backwards into the night.

Bleachs´ father just sighed and turned around, leaving the room.
“Idiot…” he muttered…

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She found herself on a small meadow, surrounded by trees, a clear blue sky above her. A fresh breeze stroke gently through her mane and coat, tickled her and made her feel comfortable. The sounds of nature around her played a harmonic song. It was…peaceful.

But suddenly, there were shouting voices between the trees, getting louder, destroyed the peaceful setting. Some birds and squirrels fled from the voices as they broke through the bushes. Six ponies entered the clearing in a rapid frantic gallop, yelling, encouraging each other to keep the pace.
“Don´t stop guys! They´re close!” “I think I can hear them!” “Just stay strong everypony! If we´re falling, everything is lost forever!” “Then hurry up! We - AAAAHHH!”
With a loud cry, one of the ponies, a dark blue stallion with a white and silver mane and tail felled hard to the ground. A root, he hadn´t seen, had let him founder and finally brought him to fall. Hastily, he tried to rise back to his hooves, but she had heard the cracking sound of the breaking bone and as soon as he put weight onto his right hind leg, he dropped back to the ground, groaning with pain. “Ocean!” one of the mares of the group shouted and his friends turned back, trying to help him back to his hooves.

“Stop it!” the injured pony shouted. “We have no time for that! Leave me behind!” “No! I won´t leave you to your fate!” the same mare as before replied with a look, which made her clear: they were more than just friends. If she looked closer at the mare, she realized: she had seen her before! Only for a short time, but anyway, she knew her! She had tried to warn her from the alicorn-shadows in her last dream! It was the same light red mare with the long waving green mane!
“You have to! Run! They could catch us up every moment!” “Then we will fight!” “No! We can´t stand them!” The red mare looked to the ground. She knew he was right. She knew she had to go on without him. “Give me the book, Ari!” Reluctant, the red mare called ‘Ari’ put a book, which was very familiar to Twilight, out of her saddlebag and reached it to her friend.
“What are you up to?” she asked. He took the book and put his right fore hoof on it. “I´ll may leave behind, but they won´t get my element! I´ll transfer it into the book! You´ll need it!” As soon as he said this, he closed his eyes and a soft orange shimmer appeared around him, slowly flowing into the book. “But…you can´t fight without it! They´ll kill you instantly!” When the shimmer completely was transferred into the book, he just smiled apologizing. “I know.” he said softly, looking deep into the red mares eyes which filled with tears. “Ocean…” she sobbed.
For a moment, they just looked at each other, silently saying good bye. No one of them all said a word. There was sadness in everyponys´ face. Finally, the mare Ari couldn´t choke her tears back anymore and started crying, kissing him passionately one last time.

After a while, they broke the kiss, looking at each other. The stallion Ocean smiled. “The best last kiss I could imagine for my life.” he said softly and put a hoof on her chest. “Don´t forget: I´ll always be with you. Right here.” he smiled even wider and his hoof wandered to her belly. “And here. Now, Ari: Go! Run! And save us all!” She just nodded, still crying and then, she turned around and ran. One last glance and finally, his friends and his love disappeared between the trees.

Also Twilight had tears in her eyes. She wished, she could do something to help them, but she was only a phantom. A silent watcher, nothing more. She hadn´t any influence to the happenings of the story in front of her.

Suddenly, there was silence again. Now, there were also tears running down Oceans´ cheeks. But he had to make that decision! With his broken leg, he just would have been a drag! And he couldn´t take that risk! He or they all, it had been an easy decision, even if it meant his death. After a few moments, there was a low rustling in the bushes they had come from, getting louder very fast!

And then, they charged the clearing…

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A soft breeze tickled his nose. The fresh air of the night mixed with the scents of the grass beneath him and the mare next to him. She smelled good. Like violets and a waft of roses. Together, they huggled under a tree in front of the school pile, savoring their togetherness.

Twilight had fallen asleep at his side, resting her head on his shoulder. Bleach also had closed his eyes to doze a little, paying attention to the variety of sounds around them. Next to him, he heard the calm deep breaths of Twilight, his favorite of the sounds around them. In the far, he heard the songs of some nightingales. He heard the susurration of the trees´ leafs, heard some small animals scurrying through the grass. Only the far yelling of two ponies won´t fit to the natural sounds around him. He tried to understand, what they were saying, but they were too far away.

Yawning, he opened his eyes, looking around. Everywhere was silvery twilight, created by the waning gibbous moon. He changed to aura-vision to check the surrounding. It was, maybe, a little bit ridiculous, but there was still a murder out there! And he was, in addition, an Auraknight! A guardian!
Slowly, he looked around, but he didn´t find something. There were only the bright potency of Twilight next to him and the faint glowing energies of some ponies at the school behind their windows. He already wanted to close his eyes again when he suddenly felt something wet at his shoulder. He changed back to normal-view and looked at Twilight. A few small tears streamed down her cheeks. Was she dreaming about Silverleaf?
He smiled and nuzzled her softly. “Don´t cry.” he whispered in her ear. “Everything will be fine. Don´t worry. I am here…” Still asleep, she dried her tears at his shoulder. Bleach giggled soft, gave her a slight kiss on her forehead, which made her smile in her dream and turned his head around back to the school pile, changing his vision again. Everything was normal and quiet.

But then, he saw something, which made him frown. It was a magical glow behind the big window of the library. A faint black magical stream, that was familiar to him. He put the crystal of his father out of his white surcoat. The black magical remains in it pulsated slightly. No doubt, what he saw behind the library-window was the same magic like that, which had killed Silverleaf!
He looked at Twilight. He won´t leave her alone, but he had to inspect that strange glow! He sighed. “I´m sorry, Twi…I´m trying to be back before you´ll awake…” He rose to his hooves and got under way.

After a few steps, he heard a yawn and a sleepy groan behind him. “Where´re you going?” Twilight asked through sleepy eyes. Bleach slightly smiled and turned around. “Oh, I only need the lavatory. Don´t worry, I´m back in a flash.” The purple mare grinned. “You´re a terrible liar. And, in addition: are you always looking for the toilet with your aura-vision? Do they have some kind of special magic that makes you find them better with it?” she smirked even wider, raising an eyebrow. “No need to be so sarcastic.” he said.
“Then tell me please: What are you really going for?” He looked at her, not sure, if he should really tell her. He won´t involve her into this. It could be dangerous. But, after a short while, he surrendered and sighed.

“Come, I´ll explain it to you on the way…”

______________________________________________________________________

“So, let me sum up: You saw that black spell behind the window of the library and think, it´s the same spell, which killed Silverleaf from inside?” “Yeah…so or something like that. It still must be checked, if it really was that spell, which killed her. But, whether it killed her or not, the spell I saw was definitely one of the spells, her murder had used! And that means: he is here, or, at least, was here only a few moments ago.” “Well, then let´s see, if we´ll find something.”

Determined to find and catch the murder of her friend, they entered the library and became silent. Bleach inspected every corner with his aura-vision, Twilight following him silently. The huge library with its light blue walls and bookcases and the dark blue carpet was hued in silvery twilight. Everywhere were the blue and red flowers Silverleaf had decorated the library with. White ladders leaned against nearly every bookcase.
Attentive they inspected every corner, every gap between the rows of the countless bookshelves. Twilight was a little bit uneasy about this venture. Sure, Bleach was a fighter, a very good fighter, to be honest, and she also wasn´t the worst magician, but anyway, they should have informed the guards at least.

Searching, they walked their way through the dark library, paying attention to every noise they heard. Suddenly, something caught Twilights´ eyes. It was a small book, lying with its backside on top on a book rest. Okay, granted, a book lying on a book rest with its backside on top, wasn´t that unusual for a library, but, in a way, the book caught Twilights´ interest. She walked closer to the desk with the book, covered in brown leather. Bleach walked on without her, not recognizing her missing.
Twilight flipped through the book. She found some strange old spells and an old story, relating of two magical forces that once fought against each other. She frowned and closed the book, looking at the front side of the cover. What she saw let her heart skip a beat. Gasping, she felled a few steps back, her widened eyes still starring at the book in front of her. It was that book! The book she saw in her dreams! The book with the twelve signs! The book, the dark shadow-alicorns came from in her nightmare!
And then, the book opened and a dark glow appeared.

“So, finally we´re meeting again…” a familiar dark voice giggled in her head. No! she thought. This can´t be! It was just a nightmare! This can´t be real! “Oh, but it IS real! You have no idea, how much we had looked forward to see you again…” the voice laughed. Dark tendrils slowly left the book, fumbling around, searching for her. Twilight, not able to speak, backed away, until she felt the bookcase behind her. She tried to shout for Bleach, but her voice was hoarse and low, terrified of the nightmarish scene in front of her. The young Auraknight couldn´t have heard that.
And then, the pure darkness burst out of the book and the dark tendrils darted at her, trying to enclose her legs. Now, she found her tongue and ran. “BLEEEEAAAACH!”

The Auraknight instantly recognized the spell! The walls and windows and ceiling shimmered blue! A spell of quietness! This is a trap! Frantically, he turned around, but Twilight wasn´t there anymore! Damned! he thought. And then, he heard her scream. He looked at the direction it came from and noticed the dark magic in the far. Oh, damn it all! “TWILIGHT!” He ran, levitating his daggers out of their sheets.

Twilight didn´t come far. After the first few steps, one of the tendrils clutched her right hind leg and brought her to fall. She tried to wrest herself free, while the tendril pulled her back towards the book. But every time she was free, another tendril snapped her, pulling her backwards. She tried to do something with her magic, to relinquish their grip, but they were too strong and she too excited and terrified to concentrate and use her magic effectively. More tendrils now snapped her, pulling her back faster. She rolled on her back, making desperate efforts to find some grip with her hooves.
And then, her blood froze instantly in her veins! Above her she saw them! The six alicorn-shadows! They levitated in the air, beating steadily with their wings. Twelve demonic red eyes focused her. This time, they seemed to be more corporeal! And much stronger than last time she met them!
Her worst nightmare came true!

“BLEEEAAACH!” she shouted one more time, filled with horror. “BLE-mmmmpf…” one of the tendrils clutched her muzzle and silenced her. They laughed devilish in her head. “This time, we´ll get our revenge!” She cried, asking herself, what they wanted to revenge for. She did nothing! “Oh, that is only what you think! Do you even know how painful it was to be kicked out of you? No, you don´t! You should be glad, that you´re still alive! It´s a real shame that we´re not allowed to kill you yet! But soon, you´ll suffer in much more pain than we did, you damned little bitch!” his voice was filled with hatred so much that it hurt Twilight. How could anypony be so full of hate?
“But…I think nopony would have an objection against some…collateral damage…” He smirked and seemed to have a short discussion with another pony. After his short inner discussion with his master, he smirked even wider. “Just as I thought…”
They pounded on her.

Twilight closed her eyes, crying, awaiting the pain and the dark cravings she felt the last time.
And then, there was a bright flash…

Bleach gave a wince of pain, when they dashed against the magical protective wall he hastily had formed with his aura. The wall shone in a bright light and with an infuriated yell of pain, the shadows retreated and inspected the newcomer. The white stallion, who had cast the wall, stood on his hind legs in front of the purple mare, protecting her with his spell. He had two daggers in his hooves, crossing them in front of him, leading the energy for the spell through them.
Also Bleach inspected his creepy enemies. So these are the murders of Silverleaf! he thought grimly.
He looked at Twilight. The purple mare was lying on her back, trembling with fear, closing her eyes. The dark tendrils had disappeared when he had arrived in the last nick of time and had cut them with his daggers. He collected his thoughts. Bleach had to think fast. He flinched again, when they dashed a second time against his shield with a loud roar. They tried to break it!
“Twilight! Get up!” he shouted, before they hit his shield a third time. His horn glowed bright in his big mental effort. But Twilight didn´t react. She opened her eyes and looked with horror at the phantoms of her nightmare which had become true. “Twilight! RUN!” A fourth hit. Still no reaction. That´s the last straw! Sorry, Twi… he took one of his daggers and pricked her in her flank so that she felt a slight piercing pain. With an “Ouch!” she came back to reality.
“RUN! NOW!” he shouted again, and gave another wince of pain. He wouldn´t hold his shield any longer! This time, she frantically rose to her hooves and ran.
Bleach waited until they attacked again. Shortly before they would have dashed against his wall, he took two steps back, avoiding them. They hit the ground and instantly, he loosed the energies of his wall at them and followed Twilight. The six alicorns felled a few steps back, when his energies stroke them. They shook their heads and instantly followed them roaring.

“We have to reach the windows!” Bleach commanded. “There is a spell of quietness all around us! Nopony hears us!” Twilight looked back at him and nodded. Together, they ran through the rows of bookshelves, heading for the windows. They heard the screams of the shadows right behind them. With his magic, Bleach overbalanced some of the bookcases and tried to thwart the dark alicorns.
Suddenly, Twilight stopped and she and Bleach crashed. He looked up. Right in front of them he saw two of the alicorns blocking their way. Damned! They pounded on them.
Twilights´ horn glowed. And in the moment, the shadows reached them and wanted to attack them, their victims disappeared in a bright flash.
After that, they found themselves near the windows. Bleach looked at his love in wonderment. “Since when do you know a teleportation-spell?” “Since a few hours?” she said sheepishly. “I found it in the book Spike got in the city today. It´s based on a magical fluctuation between time and space and…” “Explain it later! First we have to break through this quietness-spell and to shout for help!” She nodded.

Bleach tried to open one of the windows. Normally, you could simply walk through a spell like this one and it only works, if you´re inside. But, whoever sent this alicorns after them, he called a strong magical barrier combined with the quietness-spell! Bleach felt like trying to grab through a massive wall.
“Damned!” “Is something wrong?” “A magical barrier! We can´t open the window!” “And what should we do now?”
Bleach took his daggers. “I´ll break through! What else?” He flooded his daggers with some magical energy of himself and strokes a blow upon the barrier; sparking small magical remains everytime he hit the barrier. But it was useless! His energy wasn´t strong enough to break the spell! But…he closed his eyes and searched inside himself…There! There it was! The energy he had absorbed from Twilight at Magical Physics! Her energy should be strong enough!
He flooded the blade with the bright new energy and hit the barrier again. Nothing happened. He hit again. This time, he saw a small crack in the blue shimmering spell! With the next strike, the crack got wider. “Oh, come on now!” he shouted and struck one last time with all his might. This time, there was a cracking sound and a small hole appeared in the blue spell. But the hole was almost closing again! Without hesitation, Bleach hit and broke the window, took a deep breath and shouted: “HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!” And then, the spell closed again.
“And what we do now?” Twilight asked worried, hearing the alicorns right behind them. They had found them!

“Hoping and praying for a miracle…” he said when the dark alicorns appeared and attacked again…

______________________________________________________________________

“NO! LET ME GO! RIGHT NOW! LET! GO!” “Okay, let him go…” Their grip relinquished and he felled…about two meters and then he hit the ground, gasping, crying. “NOOOOOO! I WANT TO FOLLOW HER! YOU DAMNED…” “WATCH YOUR MOUTH AND SHUT UP!” He silenced and cried.

The white stallion took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, looking at the two pegasi he had asked to help him and catch Nevio if he really would jump. “I thank you very much.” “Nah, no problem. We couldn´t deny the appeal for help of an Auraknight, right?” a yellow pegasus-mare answered and stretched her shoulders. “Phew, he´s stronger than he looks like. Especially when he´s rampaging like that…” “I am sorry. I hope it wasn´t too much of a bother for you. But you´re faster than every guard I could´ve asked for. If I could pay anything back for your troubles…” “I think, an apple pie from the canteen would be enough.” the mares´ companion, a light blue stallion, replied smiling. The mare next to him rolled her eyes. “That figures! You and your pies…I should put you on a diet, Soarin´…”

Bleachs´ father only gave a short smile and turned back to Nevio with a stern look, letting the two Wonderbolts leave them alone. It had been a very good idea to call for Soarin´ and Spitfire. A royal guard would have never been fast enough to catch the brown stallion before he would have hit the ground. So he called them to observe him and rescue Nevio in the event of him jumping out of the window.
“So, let´s come back to you…” he began. Silverleafs´ friend looked up at him, starring daggers at his savior from himself with watery eyes. “I am sorry to say it, but your acting leaves me no other choice: Nevio, in the name of princess Celestia I arrest you for regretting the command of a royal guard and, primary, to protect you from yourself!” Nevios´ eyes widened and he rose back to his hooves. “But…No! That´s not fair! You can´t simply arrest me!” “Oh yes, I can! And I will! As security for your life!”
The brown stallions´ head sank to the ground. “Why? Why are you doing all this? Can´t you simply let me die?” “I do it, because I had given your friends my word to keep you safe. And, in addition and as I told you before: I know how you feel!” “And I told you, you don´t…” “Oh yes, I DO know!” he interrupted him shouting.

A short while they just stood there, staring at each other. Finally, Bleachs´ father looked to the ground, sighing. Old memories came up inside him. “Have you ever asked yourself, why neither Bleach nor Twilight nor Silverleaf nor I ever mention his mother?” Now, Nevio began to wonder. He was right, nopony of them had ever mentioned Bleachs´ mother. But he also had never asked him for her. Such questions had been always some kind of taboo for him.
“It is now about ten years ago.” Bleachs´ father continued with slight sadness in his voice. “Bleach never was supposed to be my only child.
It had been a very hard winter. His mother was in the last month of her pregnancy. We should have been soon parents of a little daughter. You surely can imagine that Bleach had been very excited. But then, his mother became dangerously ill. Double pneumonia. We brought her to the hospital, but she faded away more and more with every new day. The doctors tried everything, but it was useless. She died at the morning before Hearts Warming Eve. Bleach had left at home that day.
The doctors tried at least to save our daughter. And they did it! She was weak, but alive! But, primary, weak. I held her in my arms. I was happy. I knew she would help me coming through my wifes´ death. She sustained me. She had her mothers´ eyes…” his eyes became watery. He closed them and small tears ran down his cheeks. “But after four hours, she…she simply closed them! As she would sleep! But she never…she never…” he looked back at Nevio with a piercing glance. “Do you even know, what it means to watch your own daughter dying in your arms? Can you understand the pain I felt? Fate kicked my ass twice! First it took my wife one day before Hearts Warming Eve and then it let me hope only to take away my daughter a few hours later!”

Nevio couldn´t hold his gaze and looked to the ground. “What…what happened next?...” he asked. “I told Bleach. I didn´t mention, that his little sister had been alive for some hours. He still thinks she died with his mother.” “How…did he react?” First, the white stallion didn´t answer.
“He…tried to kill himself…” “But it did not work?” He shook his head. “No, it didn´t. And I am very thankful for that. He tried to drown himself in a lake, but Twilight and Silverleaf rescued him. They had tried to comfort him as well as they could after that. And he had let them comfort him. And so, he came through his mothers´ death. But still, he never mentions her. It hurts him too much.”
Nevio nodded, slowly realizing what Bleachs´ father was up to. “But why hadn´t you tried to kill yourself? You had to suffer so much pain…what gave you the strength to just go on?” Now, the white stallion smiled slightly.
“I simply remembered the things that still kept me on earth. My son. My family. My friends. My responsibility as Auraknight of the princess.” “And you think that´s what could fix me?” Nevio asked incredulously. Bleachs´ father nodded.
“As I said earlier: there are so many ponies around you, ready to fix you. Sure, there will always be a scar and it may hurt, when you touch it, but just trust me! Life is much too worth to just trash it. You still got your friends and your family and Silverleafs´ family! They are all ready to comfort you. You just have to let them fix and comfort you and you´ll see: your pain will fade away. Slow but steady.”

Nevio looked to the ground and thought a moment about his words. Would his pain really just go away if he only let other ponies comfort him? In the case of Bleach and his father, it had worked. But will it also work in his case? He smiled slightly. “Maybe I…just ought to try it…” he finally said and added a low-voiced: “Thank you…”

In this moment, they both heard a sound of breaking glass and a loud scream, calling for help. Nevio frantically looked up for the screams´ source. The Auraknights´ eyes widened.

It was the voice of his son…

______________________________________________________________________

His sight was suddenly covered in darkness by an explosion next to him. The blast nearly carried him off his hooves. For the dark alicorns, the party was over now! Now, they attacked them with their dark magic. And it was powerful dark and old and, primary, lethal magic! He looked back.

Above them, three of the alicorns flew, the horn of their leader glowing, sending another wave of black magic at them. Twilight used her teleportation to avoid the attack. They appeared somewhere in the depths of the library. But it wouldn´t last very long till they would find them again! In the far, they could hear the explosion of the dark spell and a loud infuriated yell.
“I…I´m afraid…but I think, I can´t keep…keep this up any longer…” the purple mare said heavily breathing, sweating, visibly exhausted. Bleach could understand her. They fled now for several minutes from them. For the two unicorns, it felt like hours. Twilight occasionally had teleported them to escape their haunters, but they had branched and found them faster every time. Bleach for himself wasn´t that exhausted, but he was a fighter after all. And Twilight was, well, a theoretician, a scholar. Not a fighter. Even if her magical potency was tremendous, her condition was another matter.
“I wish…I at least…at least could teleport us out of…the library, but…” “The barrier?” She nodded. “We have to persevere! We have to wait for help!” “But…what if nobody had heard you?” He didn´t answer. That was a thought, he also had. But he would stay optimistic! “Just stay strong!” he said, nuzzling her, trying to encourage her. “I…I´ll try…I - AHHHHHHH!”

Another sudden blast right next to them carried them off their hooves. Bleach groaned, when he landed hard on the ground; rising instantly back to his hooves, searching for Twilight. Motionless, the purple unicorn laid in front of a bookcase, covered with some books. The shock wave violently had flung her against it. “TWILIGHT!”
Rapidly he was at her side and inspected her. She was unconscious and bled slightly by a small laceration at her back of the head, but, besides that, she was alright. Bleach sighed in relief.
“Oh, I am sooooo sorry! But your little…playmate…was really going on my nerves with these endless teleportations!” a soft seductive female voice, that really won´t fit to a creepy shadow like them, mentioned in his head. He looked for the voices´ owner and found one of the alicorns lolling on one of the bookcases around him. It had a slight figure and a long waving mane and tail. He also saw the silhouettes of two ribbons on her mane and tail, flowing gracefully around her. Only the devilish red eyes and the black shadows she consisted of won´t really fit her dainty appearance. She once must have been very gorgeous, a really beautiful mare!

But, at the moment, Bleach had no eyes for such things and starred daggers at her. “Ohhhh…” she cooed and Bleach couldn´t help, but in his thoughts it sounded like an ecstatically moan. “Had anypony ever told you, how attractive you are, when you´re looking like that? Oh, there are sooo many things we could do…All this years in that damned book and not one single handsome stallion or mare around! Do you know, how much I´m craving some good ‘physical contact’?…” she winked seducing.
Bleach was disgusted.
“Stop this nonsense and tell me: who and what are you!” The shadow-mare snorted disappointed. “What´s in a name? But to answer your question: I am just the shadow of the pony I once was. A remain of what I should be. We are cravings, old as ponykind, born out of the dark desires, the ponies of the ancient time had addicted to.” “And let me guess: you are the incarnation of lust?”
She giggled sweet as honey. “Ohhh and you are sooo intelligent! Are you really sure, you won´t cooperate with me? You´re way too handsome to just kill you and everything would redound just to your advantage! I can lead you to endless pleasure! Forget her! I really won´t brag about that, but I assure you: I am REALLY good in bed, WAY better than she would ever be…”

“Oh, I love your thoughts!” another shadow, a stallion, opined. Bleach turned back. On the bookcase behind him was another shadow with a long straight mane and tail, not unlike his one. Also the other four shadows slowly appeared on the bookcases around him. Bleach positioned himself so that he could observe all of them. “Leading him and yourself to pleasure and at the peak of your ecstasy, you ram a dagger into his heart…And I thought I am the scheming one of us…” The mare snorted angrily to his words. “Do you always have to be such a spoiler?”
“Oh, come on guys, can´t we just attack him? I´m sooo exited of the mess we could wreak! The pain in his voice, ohhh, this is going to be very funny! Maybe this´ll be more fun than we had with this filly yesterday…” another mare with a wild mane and tail said until the white stallion interrupted her.
“So you ARE Silverleafs´ murders! You killed her!” Bleach shouted furious. The shadows laughed. “Silverleaf…was that her name? Lovely! Anyway: oh yes, we are!” another mare, which was a little bit chubby, answered. “And she was sooo delicious! Her energy, her blood – excellent! I wonder how you´ll taste…”
Bleach now felt like vomiting. These shadows were really dark cravings! A shame that they had arose from ponykind, if the lustful mare hadn´t lied at this.
“Oh Gula! Always thinking about guzzling! Can we end this now?” Another stallion with a shaggy mane asked nervously and impatiently. “I only want him! Right now! His body, his organs, everything at him should be mine! Now!”

“SHUT UP NOW, EVERYPONY!” a dinning voice shouted over the conversation. It was the voice of their leader, a stallion with a mane and tail that waved around him like flames. “This is not a coffee party! We are here to KILL! And to get stronger! No more hesitation now!” Disappointed comments flooded Bleachs´ head. And then, all six horns glowed dark, collecting energy to attack.
Bleach prepared himself and rose to his hind legs, the daggers in his fore hooves. He would protect Twilight till his last breath! “ATTACK!” the leader of the alicorns yelled. Instantly, a huge mass of dark energy was loosed at him, impossible to flee or avoid it. But Bleach didn´t plan anything like this.
In the moment shortly before the dark magic reached him, he frantically leveled his daggers at the magic and his horn began glowing intensively. The pure power of the magic pushed him back, when he tried to bring the energies under his control. He tried to absorb them and seal them in his daggers. He groaned and gasped in pain, sweat formed on his coat. But he didn´t give up! He couldn´t give up! Unbridled black magic flew around him, hit the ground and bookcases with small explosions.
But then, for only one short moment, he felt the pain and the power of the magic subsiding. In his aura-vision, his daggers consisted of pure darkness. They wouldn´t hold the sheer mass of black magic very long. He felt the heat in the blades, felt the magic defying his control! He had to act fast! With a loud scream, filled with exertion and pain, he pushed forward and loosed the dark energies back at the alicorns. “Return to sender!” he yelled and broke down in exhaustion. He breathed heavily, sweating bullets.

With a loud explosion, the energies hit their masters. For about one minute, Bleach only saw the dark magical remains in front of his eyes. But then, they faded…and he gasped. “Nice performance! You´re really a good fighter! My respect to that! But that won´t help you anyway! TIME TO DIE!”
The alicorn-shadows remained unharmed after they were hit by their own spell. They laughed loud and cruel and pounded on Bleach. He raised his daggers…and gasped again! “DAMNIT!” The blades of his daggers were completely molten! He only held the hilt in his hooves!
Damned training daggers! Can´t bear any magic! With the crystal daggers of my father that wouldn´t had happen! He dropped them angrily and jumped to the side in the last moment. One second later, the shadows hit the bookcase behind him and overthrew it. Roaring, they turned back to him and unleashed another storm of black magic. But their accuracy was not the best. They would miss him slightly on his right side…wait! He frantically turned back. “DAMNIT!” Not he was the target, it was Twilight!
Now, he really had to act fast! Blessedly he had two surrogate-daggers in his underhoof holsters. He frantically stretched his fore hooves and levitated them out of their sheets. Normally, Bleach didn´t fight with them. They once had been a special gift for him and they were more a lucky charm than anything other. But this was an emergency to protect the one, who gave them to him!

Without hesitation, he stretched his daggers to his right side and caught the dark spell, before it hit his love. Again it was very hard to absorb the energies and bring them under his control. Again, he felt the heat in his daggers´ blades, again he felt, how the spell tried to carry him off. But Bleachs´ will was stronger than the magic and he changed its direction. Like an athlete at hammer throwing, he turned around and threw the spell back at the alicorns.
Again, the spell exploded, when it struck his owners, but also again, they remained unharmed. The white stallion looked at his molten daggers and sighed sadly. “Oh, come on! They had been a present…”
A loud laugh turned his gaze back to the shadow-alicorns. “Have these been your last of those stupid kitchen knives or how long should we keep this up?” Bleach growled angrily. The last daggers he had where the daggers he threw at them with his eyes. “Oh, that is very good! Don´t mind me, but it really got boring! Well then…”

Again, they pounded on him. This time, without any weapon, without anything to defend himself, Bleach only could protect him and Twilight with his magic. His horn glowed and cast his protective wall again. This time, the alicorns attacked it merciless. He flinched every time, they struck it. He felt the exhaustion. He felt the escape through the library, felt the two spells, felt the past day, felt his senses slowly fading away. He was at the end of his rope. Only a few more strokes and they would break through. Tears appeared in his eyes. He couldn´t hold it any longer! He went down on the ground. His look went bleary.
A cracking sound. The shield was damaged! With the last of his strength, he tried to repair the shield, tried to stand one last hit. And then, they broke through...
“I…am sorry…Twilight…I…love you…” he whispered...and passed out.

The last thing he saw was a bright flash and a bizarre mix of white, blue, green and red…

______________________________________________________________________

End of chapter 1…

Ch.2 - A New Home - Pt.1 - Awakening

Chapter 2 – A New Home

Part 1 – Awakening

Tired.
She felt endlessly tired….

And comfortable!
So comfortable…

She was totally at ease. Everything was just snuggly wuggly cozily. If she had her way, she would sleep forevermore!
The pillow, her head was resting on, must have been the softest and cuddliest one he ever had rested on! The warm blanket she was snuggled up in was also as smooth as the finest silk and made her want to lie like this for all eternity.
The calm deep breathes she took wafted the scent of a fresh summer morning breeze, mixed with the scents of fresh spearmint and a slight tang of chamomile, to her nostrils. Through an opened window above her, she heard the song of some birds, common skylarks she guessed, but wasn´t sure.
Everything was in harmony and perfected by a soft hoof, which was endlessly stroking tenderly through her mane.

She sighed in relish and gave a long loud yawn, knowing she disclosed her awakening to the one next to her, but snuggled up in her bed even more. She heard a chuckle and, shortly after that, she felt a warm breath at her ear and a familiar voice whispering. The hoof didn´t stop stroking all the time. “Good morning sleepyhead! Time to wake up!”
Moaning drowsy, she turned in her bed and faced the pony next to her, her eyes still closed. “Only five more minutes…” she said dozy. Another giggle.
“As you wish! You slept for so long, these five minutes won´t bother me…”
So, she rested another five minutes in her bed with the soft hoof in her mane.

After these minutes, she gave another long yawn. Her eyes fluttered and finally opened, looking up for the hoof´s source, just to find what she hoped to find: the deep dark-blue ocean-eyes she loved so much from the first moment she saw them!
“Well? Slept enough?” the eye´s owner asked her. She smiled dozily back at him.
“Uh-huh…”
He beamed at her. “Well then: Do you want some breakfast? You are sure hungry, considering how long you´ve slept!” Before she could answer, her stomach rumbled loud. She smiled sheepish at him and he giggled. “Guess that´s a ‘yes’, huh?”
Her smile got even wider and she nodded. “Yes.”

With that, the white stallion left his seat next to her and walked over to a small table in the middle of the room and opened a small cupboard with his magic.
Yawning and groaning, Twilight sat up in her bed and looked around. She found herself in one of the countless guest rooms of the royal palace. She instantly recognized the purple walls, which are so typical for it. The room was not very big. There was a small wooden table with a few chairs in the middle of the room, several vases with different colorful flowers inside standing on it. There was also a small half-filled cup and a pot of tea next to it.
Along the walls were a few cupboards for the personal possessions, a bigger cupboard with fresh bedding, some flatware and sundry other things and a dresser, where Bleach´s saddlebag rested on. Next to her bed was a slightly opened window. Through the window she saw the beautiful castle garden with its great colorful flowerbeds and the huge palace labyrinth.

Her gaze wandered back to Bleach, who was preparing a small breakfast for his loved filly. He levitated a small meal tray on the table, placed a plate and a cup on it and filled it with tea. At the same time, he opened his saddlebag on the dresser and levitated out a small box and, out of the small box, two sandwiches and placed them on the plate.
Twilight was amazed at how good he was prepared for her awakening.

“Tell me…how long did I sleep?” she asked him, stretching herself.
He stopped for a short moment with the breakfast-preparation and turned back to her, wide-smiling. “Oh, it is Saturday morning. That means if I calculate right, you slept exactly…two days, six hours, twenty two minutes and forty-two seconds until you took your first yawn.”
Twilight chuckled and quizzically cooked an eyebrow. “Yeah, sure! I slept exactly that long…”
“Okay, okay…it had been fifty-six seconds…”
Both laughed and Bleach continued preparing her breakfast.

The purple mare simply enjoyed watching him and one more time, she recognized how handsome he was. She always was wondering why he hadn´t a fillyfriend yet. He was so adorable! Who wouldn´t love his star-white coat, the long raven mane and, her favorite, the two dark-blue ocean-eyes? And his black surcoat made him look even more adorable and...Wait! Black?
“Bleach!” she suddenly shouted in surprise. He turned around with an asking look.
“What is it?”
“Your…your surcoat! It is…it is BLACK! Does that…?”
He grinned from ear to ear. “Yep, it does! In front of you stands a full-fledged Auraknight on her majesty´s service! Great, isn´t it?”
“That is way more than great! It is marvelous! But how…What did I miss?”
“Well…” he began and levitated the tray to her “Let me explain it to you while you´re breakfasting…”

______________________________________________________________________

…“So this is your report?” a stern voice asked him and he nodded ashamed.

He really was not looking forward for where this was going. He only had heard short parts of what had happened after he had passed out in the library. His father and the princess herself had reached in the last nick of time before the dark alicorns got the chance to hurt him and Twilight and had banished them back into the book. Their summoner wasn´t found yet.

He finally had awakened in the late afternoon of the following day and had found himself in one of the chambers of the palace. Twilight had been still asleep at that time.
And also now, in the morning of the next day, she still was sleeping. He began to worry. And he had a guilty conscience about involving her in the situation without calling for the guards.
The fact, that princess Celestia instantly had called him for an audience this morning to report her, made him seriously nervous. This all wasn´t a very good omen and the stern and slightly displeased look on the white alicorn´s face agreed with his thoughts.

So, he now was kneeling down in front of his princess, sweating bullets.
“I asked you: This is your report?” she asked again, wanting to make him answer her loud.
“Y-y-yes…my princess…” he answered low-voiced but loud enough for her. She snorted displeased. “Let me sum this up: You and Twilight went out for a walk because you couldn´t sleep. When I consider your situation and your feelings at that time, there is no problem with your acting. Up to this point I say nothing against your acting and have to thank you for being a great comforter for my faithful student. But…” Here we go…
“…next you saw this strange black magic behind the library´s window and instead of calling for the guards and your father, who was at the school at that time too, you went for your own to inspect it! And as if that wouldn´t be dangerous enough, you also involved Twilight in the situation and risked your and her life! How do you explain your foolish acting? How do you explain risking the life of my faithful student in the face of your vow as an Auraknight-to-be to protect the lives of others?” Celestia´s anger rose with every word and Bleach shrank with every word.
This definitely wouldn´t have a happy end for him!

“I…I…”
“Well?”
He sighed. “I can´t explain it, my princess. I…I just wanted to stop that murder before he would kill another pony. I had to act fast. And Twilight…I really didn’t want to involve her into this. She was asleep when I saw that strange magic. I really wanted to go without her. I knew it could be dangerous, but…she woke up and asked me, where I was going to. I tried to lie at her, said I only would need the lavatory, but she didn´t believe me. To be honest: I´m a bad liar. She knew there was something else. I know, I shouldn´t have done this and I´m hating myself for it, but I took her with me because I knew she would push me until I´m yielding…”
“The cleverer give in, right?” the alicorn-princess asked blank and he nodded.
“I am so sorry for what happened. She still didn´t wake up and I am really worrying about her. I know it is all my fault and I´ll bear the consequences for my acting. I´m just begging you to understand me and to be merciful…”

A few moments, there was silence. Celestia scrutinized the youngster in front of her, before she took a sharp breath and exhaled her frustration. “Listen, Bleach: I know your heart is on the right place and I also know you won´t involve Twilight in such a dangerous situation deliberately. I know about your feelings for her. I watched you for a long time and, moreover, I heard your last words before you passed out.
I also know that you did your very best to protect her in the face of your enemy and that she´s still alive speaks for your abilities. And I also respect your father, who serves for me for many years now and always stays loyal at my side.
BUT: As princess of Equestria, teacher of Twilight AND your later employer and mentor besides your father, I can´t turn a blind eye to this!”

“I´ll accept every punishment, my princess…” he said and bowed down to except his sentence. The white alicorn-princess again silently looked over him, before she annunciated: “Take off your surcoat!”
Bleach thought, his heart would stop beating!
“M-m-m-my s-s-surcoat…” he gasped in panic and disbelief.
“Here and now!” Celestia commanded with emphasis.
“B-But…But…”

Frantically, he rose to his hooves and looked at his princess in desperation. “No! You…You can´t simply drop me out of my training! Please, my princess! I…I know, I made a mistake, but…Please! I´m begging for your mercy! It´s my destiny! My future! I…”
“BE QUIET!” she shouted at him angrily. He did so and shrank back again. “Don´t even dare thinking about regretting my order! Put off your surcoat! Right! Now!”
Celestia´s look destroyed every urge to disagree with her. A small tear formed in his eye and slowly ran down his cheek. Reluctant, he did as his princess had commanded and put off the white surcoat, which meant so much for him.
He wished there would be somebody to defend him, preferably his father! But Celestia had ordered to let them alone, so there was no pony around to help him.

The alicorn-princess levitated the surcoat in front of her. Bleach felt naked. Granted, they normally don´t wear any clothes in Equestria, but there, in this moment, he felt naked.
Without saying anything, the princess´ horn began glowing a bit brighter and with a sudden small pulse of magic, his surcoat was wrapped in flames. This sight was too much for him. He closed his eyes and looked to the ground in shame, listening to the crackle of his burning sign as an Auraknight-trainee.
The small tear dripped to the ground.

“Bleach Auraknight…” Celestia then pronounced “…in my capacity and my powers as princess, I declare your education in the name of all Equestria official as…” she took a deep breath for the last word “…finished!”
The white stallion frowned. Did she say ‘finished’? He looked up in confusion…and again he thought his heart would be out of service! What his eyes saw, was his surcoat, still levitating in front of a now smiling princess Celestia, the last flames vanishing.
It now was black. Black! The color of a full-fledged Auraknight! “What the…”
“Bleach, regarding the last events, I decided to declare you as a full-fledged Auraknight! You have showed courage and fortitude in face of a horrible enemy! You have acted fast and intelligent in face of a life-threatening situation, where every second counts! And you have proofed your skills in fighting and protecting whilst defending the life of my faithful student Twilight Sparkle! And, even if you were the one, who had led her in this life-threatening situation, you still command all your courage to face me and have the maturity to acknowledge your fault and bear its consequences!
All these qualities, every single one of them, make you worthy of being a full-fledged Auraknight at my service!”

Bleach didn´t know, what to say. Only two minutes ago, he thought that everything was lost, only to get now everything he had longed for! He just looked at his princess in wonderment and surprise. She giggled.
“Won´t you take back your surcoat?” she asked.
“Oh…” he said dumbfounded, levitated his surcoat back to him and put it on. “I´m just…surprised…and a little bit confused, to be honest…”
“Well, if I am honest, it wasn´t an easy decision, what I should do and how to handle your acting. As I said, I couldn´t turn a blind eye to this. I discussed a long time with your father and he persistently had affirmed that your heart is in the right place and that you´re worth to have a second chance.
And finally, he convinced me and we decided to finish your training because of the things I mentioned. The only condition was that you at least had to exculpate yourself, alone, without any help. That is why we are alone here.”

The white stallion just nodded and bowed down one more time, deeper than ever before. “I thank you wholehearted, my princess! I promise, no, I vow to never disappoint you again! I´ll always stay loyal at your side and always will defend your life with mine, if it´s necessary!” he said fervently and she nodded. Slowly, his proud and his self-confidence came back.
“But to fulfill your duty, you´ll need two more things…” and she levitated two items from behind her throne to him. The first thing was a black belt with two sheaths. And in these two sheaths were two new daggers. “The first should be these daggers, every one of them a masterpiece for itself!”

He donned the belt around his hips and levitated the two daggers out of their sheets in front of him to inspect them. They both shimmered faintly, one in sky-blue and the other in blazing red. The hilt and the blade of the red one were engraved with stylized flames. The ones of the blue dagger were engraved with stylized ocean waves and waterdrops. The blades´ material for itself had to be a special mix of steel and crystals. Crystals could bear more magical energy and it was easier to canalize magic through them, than through steel. That was the reason, why his old daggers had molten in the library. They had only consisted of steel and couldn´t bear the sheer mass of the black magic.
Only the daggers of a full-fledged Auraknight consisted of crystals and steel.
And now, finally, he had his own unique pair!
It was a really great feeling!

“Ruby and sapphire, fire and water, zeal and patience…Never forget these two things! As a fighter, you will always need them! Your passionate way of fighting! Your determination and your iron will to walk on, even if you fall!
And, on the other side, your intellect! Your deep, strong and powerful emotions! Your patience and longanimity! And your analyzing powers of observation!”
He nodded and put them back into their sheaths. “Thank you!” he said.
“And the second should be this…”
She levitated a small round item to him. It was a little bit bigger than a coin. There was the sign of Celestia engraved on it: the big sun which also was her cutie-mark. On the backside, there was engraved his own cutie-mark: the crossed daggers with the red rose in the background.

“This is your signet. Show it to anypony and he or she will know, that you´re acting on my behalf! You´ll need it, because I have a special mission for you and Twilight…”

______________________________________________________________________

“A mission?” Twilight interrupted him.

Bleach nodded. “I´ll tell you later. First, we should use this day to get back some…normality, if you want so…” The purple unicorn also nodded and finished her breakfast with a last sip of her tea.
“Ah! That was good! Chamomile tea with one spoonful honey and a rose and a daisy sandwich…where do you know, that these are my favorites for breakfast?” “Well…” he said smirking “…we are friends for how many years now? Twelve? I know you since we were seven years old foals! Don´t you think I should know such things?”

Twilight chuckled. “You are right! After all, I also know what you like for breakfasting, so it was a silly question…” She yawned and stretched herself. “Anyway, I´ll take a hop into the shower, if you don´t mind…” she said and slipped out of her bed.
“Of course not!” he beamed and opened the door that led to the small bathroom. He waved inviting with his hoof and held her the door open like a gentlecolt. “Go and shower as long as you want! Spike already had brought your favorite shower foam and shampoo and perfume and I don´t know what all from your chamber. Everything is just waiting for you! Meanwhile, I´ll go and wash the dishes.”
The purple unicorn giggled and nuzzled him before she entered the bathroom. “Thank you very much!”

After the door to the bathroom had closed, he took Twilight´s tray with his magic and left the room for the central kitchen. He of course could have given the dishes to one of the kitchen helpers of the palace, but his love would surely need some time for her and he just wanted to give her some privacy. So, he went and washed the dishes by his own. He allowed himself enough time and chatted a little bit with the kitchen helpers. He also would have informed the princess about Twilight´s awakening, but she wasn´t at the palace at the time, so he just informed some guards to tell her and his father.

After about half an hour, he headed back for Twilight´s room. He politely knocked at the door and the sweet voice of his loved filly allowed him to enter.
With a singing “I am ba-hack!” he opened the door and an air draft wafted the scents of violets and roses to his nostrils. The beautiful scent deafened him for a short moment. He looked at Twilight, lying on her bed in front of the now wide opened window, her head resting on her forelegs and on the windowsill. Dreamy, she looked out of the window, savoring the warm sun and the fresh morning breeze, her eyes half-closed.
Bleach couldn´t help but stare. He knew, that the purple mare was beautiful, that was one of many reasons he loved her for, but he never had seen her perfect beauty this way! The sun made her purple coat sparkle like starry heavens, her purple-pink mane and tail waved playful, carried by the soft morning breeze. And her fragrance! This lovely heady aroma!
She looked back at the white stallion and noticed him staring at her. She giggled and smirked in a seductive manner. “Like what you see?” she asked, playfully flicking her tail and broke his stare.

He blinked and frantically shook his head. “I…I uh…” he stuttered and blushed heavily. “ I…uh…was just lost in thoughts for a moment…sorry…” Twilight smirked even wider and cocked an eyebrow - her typical look when she was going to be sarcastic. “Oh, this minute was but a looong moment!” she said, using the words Bleach once had used when they met the first time.
He came into the picture and smiled back nervously. “Well…it was a looooong delicate thought…” “Oh, and what was this looooooong delicate thought about?” she asked back and got out of the bed, coming very close to him, looking deep into his eyes. “W-Well…” he answered stuttering, not sure if he really should do the next step. “…t-this delicate thought m-maybe was about if I…” “If you…?” she came even closer until there were only a few inches left between their heads. She mesmerized him with her seductive sparkling eyes.
“W-Well…if I…” Oh, for God´s sake, just do it, idiot! “…if I…should do…this…”
And after these words, he closed his eyes, leaned forward and quickly locked his lips with hers.

Twilight´s eyes first opened wide in sudden surprise, but finally, she closed her eyes too and returned the kiss. It was a short, passionate kiss. And it was a meaningful one, for both of them.
Their hearts hammered in their chests when he finally broke the kiss. For a short moment, they just looked into each other’s eyes, blushing, smiling, exploring each other´s soul, carrying for nothing in the world. All the shadows, all the happenings of the last week, everything was forgotten in this one moment!

Bleach was the first, who found his tongue: “Twilight…” he said in a soft voice “…there´s…something…something I wanted to tell you since a long time now…”
She said nothing to interrupt him. She gave him his time. The purple unicorn knew the words he was going to say. She heard them in her dream. The words she wanted to hear since so long! She just smiled at him, silently encouraging him with her shining eyes to go on.
“Twilight, I…I…” Say it, idiot! Just say it! You got so far, now just say… “…I love you! I love you since the first time we met. You are the most beautiful mare I ever met in my entire life! I love everything about you, your shining eyes, your soft coat, your silky mane, simply everything! You´re intelligent, kind, amiable, funny an-hmmm…”
Her lips silenced him and they shared another passionate kiss, until Twilight slowly broke away, smiling wide and blushing heavily.
“I love you too!” she whispered to him with her lovely voice. “You are the most handsome and most intelligent stallion I ever met and I love you since we met the first time, too! But…” she chuckled “…sometimes you´re just talking too much.”
With these words, she leaned forward for another long kiss.

Together, continuing making out, they headed for the bed.

“You planned all this in this half-hour, didn´t you?” Bleach whispered between two kisses.
Twilight only smirked slyly in response and leaned in for another deep passionate kiss…

He didn´t know why, but he was in a good mood! Maybe it was because of his son´s finished education, or it was his anticipation for his son´s face when he gave him his present or it was just the good weather.

Anyway, the white stallion with the short blue mane was filled with cheerfulness this day. There was only one shadow. This shadow was Silverleaf.
He finally had the results of the autopsy and they were everything other than pleasant! The spell - or better: the magical shadow-alicorns, as he knew now - had killed her from the inside. And it surely hadn´t been a painless death but the extremely opposite.
Her inner organs, every single one of them, every bone, every vein, everything was destroyed! More than destroyed: everything was ONE SINGLE MASS!
He surely had seen many things in his life, but this was on a brand-new level! Luckily, the strange book and the shadow-alicorns were under his and Celestia´s control now.

“Ten-hut!” he commanded and the two pegasi-palace guards in front of the huge stairway, which led to the throne room and the hallways with the guest rooms, saluted with their wings.
“Any exceptional occurrences?” Bleach´s father asked in a habitual military voice.
“No Sir!” they replied chorusing. “But we have an information for you and the princess from your son!” one of them added.
“So?” he asked frowning. “Tell me!”
“Twilight´s awakening, Sir! She awoke about…must be one and a half to two hours ago! That´s at least, what your son had told us. And this was...about twenty minutes ago. After that, he headed back for Twilight´s room and still should be there, if you´re searching for him.” the guard told him honestly.
His good mood increased again a little bit.
“Ah, wonderful! So she finally awoke! That surely will be a pleasant message for the princess! Did he say something about her current state of health?”
“As far as he told us, she should be in a good condition. He didn´t say something about any emotional damages or disturbances, so she should be all right.”
“Thank you! That´s all for now. Move on!...Or stand on, that fits more…” he quipped and passed the two now chuckling guards.

He climbed the stairs and headed for the hallway with Twilight´s room, where he also would find his son. He was sure, he also would be there even if it hadn´t been his duty to protect and care for the purple mare.
With a wide smile he finally reached the door to Twilight´s room and with very much élan, he opened it.
“Goooood morning you two! It is very good to hear about your awakening and - Hellooo!”
What his eyes saw, was in one way not really surprising for him, but in the other way it was a little bit…sudden. In front of him in the bed lay his son and Twilight, cuddling and passionately kissing together. Nothing more… Yet, so his hidden agenda.
They frantically stopped with their activities when they heard the voice from the door, sat up straight and turned their heads to him, both blushing heavily.

“Well, well!” he said appreciative slow, smirking. “The young Auraknight and the princess´ faithful student, cuddling and kissing together, lost in their deep love and passion for each other! Who expected this?” Before they could answer, he shrugged, continued and answered his question. “I? Celestia? The whole school? The whole palace? Maybe whole Canterlot?”
Bleach chuckled. “You always had miserable timing, dad. And you still have it.”
Now, his father grinned slyly. “Well, better I disturbed you now than a quarter later. What would I have seen then…Believe me: That would have been really awkward!...”
“DAD!”
They all laughed.

“But now back to topic.” Bleach´s father then said and looked at Twilight. “It is good to see you awake. We all already started worrying about you! I think, after what I saw, it´s redundant to ask you if you´re okay?”
She smiled and nodded. “Yes. Bleach took good care for me.”
“Yeah, I can see it…” he smirked in response. “I just was a little bit worried, because you sometimes mumbled in your sleep. We tried to wake you up, but you were like…sealed off…”
“Oh…I…mumbled? What did I say?”
“We couldn´t understand it, to be honest. You mumbled very low, so we only recognized, that you mumbled, but not what.
“Maybe you just tell us about your dream…if you like…” Bleach suggested.

The purple mare thought a moment about that. Her dream was…strange. She had a conversation with that one mare she saw in her nightmare and her last dream. And after that, she had dreamed about her first school day and how she met Bleach…
Finally, she nodded. It wouldn´t do any harm to share the inner conversation between her and the mare, especially because it was about the six alicorns.

“Okay, I´ll tell you…”

______________________________________________________________________

“Well, well! Look at this! If this isn´t one of the chosen six, left behind by his own friends! And one of them really should be the incarnation of ‘loyalty’? HA! I never heard a better joke!” the leader of the dark alicorns mocked.

She was on that clearing again. How did she come here? Wait! The shadows! The explosion! The hit on her head! And then…she was here. I am…unconscious! she thought and slight panic seized her. Oh no, that isn´t good! What´s about the alicorns! What´s about me! And…about Bleach! I have to help him! Hey! Body! Wake up! Hey! HEEEEEY! WAKE UP!...Nothing… her head bowed down. I am…trapped in my own body…SHOOT!...

“It was MY decision to leave behind, MY idea to make a martyr of myself! So mock at me and not at them, you damned scumbags!” the dark-blue stallion with the white waving mane hit back with all his bravery.
The six alicorns only laughed loud.
“Ooooh, you give your life for them? That´s a very biiiig sacrifice!” a mare with a sweet seductive voice cooed and trotted closer to him.

Twilight frowned. Again she was a silent watcher of the happenings in front of her. Her dream continued where it had end the last time: at the moment when the dark alicorns had entered the clearing. She had no other choice than watching the scene…

She looked closer at the alicorn-mare, which had a soft melodious and seductive voice, that really won´t fit her attitude.
Her outer beauty stood in an extreme contrast to her inner nature. Her coat was nearly snow-white with a slight touch of pink. Her long waving mane had a deep dark pink and her eyes shone in a demonic bright sky blue. Her slight figure and her well defined curves made her one of the most beautiful mares in the world. Two long black ribbons, which were tied up in her long mane and her tail, waved graceful around her in the slight breeze.
The only thing, which ruined the perfect look, was her cutie-mark. In front of a big flame where the signs of Venus and Mars, crossed in an unmistakable way, which showed her…’profession’…

“You are really generous to take such a fate on yourself! And I always thought you are the kind guy of the group! But after your words…”
“I am no longer the Element of Kindness!” he said and smirked wily. “I transferred it out of my body! They have it! I am useless for you! My death wouldn´t change anything for you!”
“You wily stripling, you…” she cooed and stalked around him like a hungry cat around a trapped mouse, coming a little bit closer with every step.
“But…in that case, you may haven´t to die…” she was now next to him, her mane softly tickled him and she looked at him in a seductive manner, a prankish smile on her face. She softly nuzzled his neck and he shuddered displeased.
She ignored it and whispered in his ear teasingly.
“Come with me! Fortunately for you, you are a very handsome young colt and alive you are more worthy for me! Forget your little playmate and this whole ‘We are the Elements of Harmony and we have to save the world’ thing! You know, they won´t do it! Come with me and you´ll survive! Come with me and I´ll give you everything you want! I´ll give endless pleasure to you! I´ll give you satisfaction!”
She nuzzled him again, surrounded him one last time, her mane tickling his coat and her tail playfully flicking across his face. “So, what´s your decision?...” she then asked beneath him.

Ocean snorted, exhaling her terrible sweet scent and shook his head. I heard enough!
He leaned over to her neck and bit her as firmly as he could.
She screamed by the sudden pain and frantically shook her head to loosen his bite, but he won´t stick to his guns! He tasted her blood and wanted to disgorge it, but he kept biting her.
Finally, with a strong pulse of magic, she kicked him off. He landed hard on the ground after he flew a few meters through the air and gasped. His broken leg shot waves of stinging pain through his body. He looked up and faced two demonic blue eyes focusing on him. Their message was unmistakable: You! Are! DEAD!

“Odium?” she asked, hardly holding back her temper. Her face had a deep purple. A dark red, nearly black, stallion with a blazing red and yellow mane replied: “You want him for yourself?” She nodded and grinned.
“With your leave, I´ll…show him heaven face-to-face…”
“As you wish…” the alicorn´s leader simply said. “And we´ll see if we can catch the others.” he turned around to the other four alicorns behind him. “MOVE OUT!”

“NO!” Ocean shouted and tried to rise to his hooves and block their way. But his broken hind leg brought him back to ground with a groan.
Not deigning to look at him one more time, the five alicorns passed him and he left alone with his murder-to-be.

As soon as they had disappeared in the forest, another wave of magic threw him through the air. He landed hard on his back and instantly the beautiful face of the alicorn-mare appeared in his glance, staring down at him with hatred.
“So you like to do it with pains? I didn´t know you´re this way! But if that´s really, what turns you on, I can help you getting warmed up…”
She raised her left fore leg and took aim. She grinned, knowing about his injury. He showed it to her when he tried to stop the others. His eyes went wide, silently begging: No! Please don´t!
In this moment, she tramped on his right hind leg for all one is worth.
First, the blue stallion only heard a loud cracking sound. But then, he heard the loudest noises he had heard in his entire life.
He heard his own screams of pain…

“Yeah, THAT´S a turn-on, right?”
Oceans view was bleary by the tears he cried. His screams didn´t die down. They only increased when the alicorn-mare increased the pressure on his broken leg. He trembled and tried to wriggle out of her grip, but it was useless. He was completely under his murders control.
“And now, let´s double the fun, what do you mean?” she asked and raised her other fore leg only to tramp it with all her powers on his left hind leg. Again, he heard a cracking sound and felt an unbearable pain after that, flooding his body and his mind. If he thought, his screams couldn´t get any louder, he was wrong. The mare only laughed sadistic, savoring every sign of pain from him.
And Ocean´s body only consisted of pain at this moment!
He couldn´t even cry for mercy! His throat was too busy forming his anguished screams instead of forming any words.

“Do you want me to end it?” she finally asked. He wrest a nod from himself. He couldn´t form a ‘yes’. His thoughts were too busy with the pain.
Her face came closer and she whispered in his ears, nuzzling him, hearing his beautiful screams right next to her ear. “Do you want me to relief you? Do you want me to…kill you?...”
She leaned back and looked down at him, waiting for his answer, increasing the pressure on his legs again.

Finally, he nodded.

“At your desire…”
Her horn began to glow. Slowly, one of her long ribbons moved in front of her, shrouded in a dark glow by her magic. It´s end pointed at the stallion beneath her. “It is really sad that it has to end like this. But it´s your own decision! So…” The ribbon´s tip, suddenly sharp as a sword because of her demonic magic, shot out, broke through his body and cut his heart. “…farewell…”
Instantly, his screams ended. His eyes went wide by the sudden sharp pain where his heart was. He trembled, coughed and rattled, fighting his last fight against the nearing death. He felt his life dwindling. His eyes fluttered and rolled back in their socks. One last time, his body reared up and finally his eyes closed and his body flagged with a last breath of relief.

Ocean was dead.

The mare slowly removed the ribbon out of his body and gave a devilish laugh, watching the puddle of blood growing around the dead stallion. And then, she left, following the other alicorns…

Twilight cried. Why can´t she do something? Why she has to be just a watcher? She wanted to help the stallion all the time, but nothing helped! She had tried to trot over to them, but she didn´t came closer with every step. She stayed where she was! That wasn´t fair!
She looked away and closed her eyes, but her gaze turned back to the blue stallion automatically. But…she gasped! There was no longer the blue stallion lying in a puddle of blood, it was… “BLEACH!” He turned his head and opened his eyes. “I…am sorry…” he whispered with a last breath “Twilight…I…love you…”
The stallion died again, this time the one she loved.
“NO! BLEACH!”

“And I tried all the time to block him out…” somepony sighed behind her.
Frantically, Twilight turned around and faced the red mare she saw in her dreams before. “You…”
“I am sorry you had to see this. I tried to keep him out of this part of our mind. But he and Ocean resemble each other way too much, so he projected himself onto him and…”
“Wait…You…tried to keep him out of our mind? What do you mean with ‘our mind’? What have you done with Bleach? Answer me!”
The mare smiled slightly. “You know this is just a dream. He isn´t really dead.” she calmed the purple mare and searched for a point to start her explanation. “I…manipulated your dreams to contact you. Our souls and memories are connected. I am a part of you. We are two ponies in one body, if you want so. Well, at least you are a pony. I´m just a remnant of a pony, a part of its spirit, reborn in your body, can you follow me till here?”
Twilight nodded slightly confused, trying to follow the mare’s words.
“I tried to contact you and to warn you the last time you dreamed. But you awoke too early. It is very difficult to import you, and only you, into my memories and contact you without becoming part of the memories for myself like the last time. That is why you saw this. It is, kinda, a side-effect of being imported to my memories and my part of our mind. And you saw this scene with Ocean because he is bloody similar to your Bleach…with the difference that Bleach isn´t…but that´s not important now…”

“But you hadn´t been there when she killed your love! How do you remember, what she had done to him? That´s not part of your memories!” Twilight asked her.
Sadly the mare looked to the ground.
“I…heard his screams…and I saw this in her memories. You remember when they had attacked you the first time? I had arbitrary access for their memories at this time.”
“You mean: when I had this nightmare where I saw you the first time?”
She nodded. “You can be thankful that you´re still alive! They already had nearly destroyed your mind when I blocked them out and transferred you into the dome.”
“You mean…You are the warm feelings I felt at that time?”
Again, she nodded. “They tried to block me out, too, when they had recognized me. But I was stronger and tried to warn you. I could break through for a short moment, as you remember. But finally, they fought me down and attacked you. My only chance was to wake you up.”

There was a short silence between them. Finally, Twilight asked:
“Ari…”
“Ariadne. Only Ocean is allowed to call me ‘Ari’, sorry.”
“Okay, Ariadne: what is going on here?”
The red mare with the green mane chuckled. “I´m sorry, my dear, but I won´t tell you this…”
“WHAT?” Twilight shouted in disbelief and indignation. “You try to contact me, show me this horrible memory of yourself and now you won´t tell me what that´s all meaning?”
She chuckled again. “Yes…” “And why the hay…” “Listen, Twilight! It is not as easy as you think! You´re very well-read, so think now! What happens if I tell you what I figured out and what I know? You ask me nothing more than for giving you my memories. And I can´t do this! There´s a huge wall between your and my memories! Imagine what happens, when I break this wall! Our memories will melt together! Your mind can´t bear this and will break! And what if it stands this flood of new memories? What then? Will you still be the same Twilight like before? Or will you be a second Ariadne? Do you even know how dangerous it already is to have you here?” she asked with a stern look.
“But…if it is that dangerous, why do you import me here after all?”
“Primary, I imported you to warn you about these six ponies. Somepony is trying to revive them and if this plan works, your world soon will be like the desert in your nightmare!”
“You mean…this desert…was a destroyed world? Our destroyed world?”
“As I said: I can´t tell you. Make your own thoughts about that! But…I at least can tell you, that everything you have to know about me, my friends and the alicorns is written down in the book.”
“What is this strange book after all?”
“Actually, it is a normal book. But the spells it tells, are very dangerous in the wrong hooves! But primary, it´s a book that tells the history of the six alicorns, where they come from and so on…”
“So I…have to read that book? That is your advice?”
Ariadne nodded.
“UUUUGH…Great! And I hoped to hear something more helpful…”
The red mare chuckled. “Please don´t be bad with me. Maybe, we´ll meet again when you figured out more. For now, you should rest…good night, Twilight Sparkle…”
“What? Hey, wait!”
But the mare already had vanished and the clearing was vanishing, too.

Twilight´s mind dreamed away and forgot the happenings of the last moments. Ariadne had sent her back to her own memories and to her own part of their mind.
She was dreaming now.

She dreamed about her first day at school, the excitement, her nervousness and how she met Bleach the first time. Her thoughts focused at him. She remembered all their big and small adventures. And when they ended, she felt a hoof on her shoulder. She turned around and faced his beautiful ocean-eyes.
She smiled and was happy to see her love. He didn´t say anything. There was no need for words between them.

She leaned forward and kissed him passionately…

______________________________________________________________________

“And from this point, the story gets…well…X-rated…” she finished low-voiced and blushed with a side-glance to Bleach. He blushed too, smiling slightly.

Bleach´s father, who had taken place on one of the chairs around the table, chuckled. “Nice to know, what youngsters are dreaming these days…but now serious: That all sounds very…” he shrugged. He didn´t find a word to describe what he had heard.
“…mysterious…” Bleach finished the sentence musing. “But at least we know now, what exactly that murder wanted!” he concluded. “And we also know something about that alicorns! We know that they are dark cravings, that´s at least what this one mare of them had told me. And after what you just told us, it must be the same mare that once had killed this ‘Ocean’. She is the incarnation of ‘lust’. One other name I heard is ‘Gula’, but I don´t know…”
“Gluttony.” Twilight interposed and gained an appreciatory glance from both stallions. She smiled sheepish. “I studied a little bit Latin combined with old religions during our summer holidays. ‘Gula’ is ‘gluttony’ in Latin and one of the Christian seven deadly sins.”
“Well, gluttony fits her behavior and her words. And what´s about this ‘Odium’?”
“It seems he is their leader. Abhorrence, abomination…hatred, that´s what describes him the best.”
“So we know now three incarnations, they represent: lust, gluttony and hatred…” Bleach´s father summed up. “And the others? And why does their master kill other ponies if he wants to revive them?”
“The others, I don´t know. But I can tell you why that pony is killing others, to revive them!” All eyes wandered to Bleach. “Energy! After all these years in that book, they´re sure weakened and have to collect new energy before they´re ready for their resurrection. You remember Silverleaf´s body? We couldn´t find any energy because they had absorbed it.”

“But…why of all ponies her?...” Twilight asked sadly. Bleach swallowed audibly and looked to the ground.
“Because…of you…”
Twilight went wide-eyed. “Me?” Her voice was throaty. Bleach nodded.
“And at the library, they didn´t want you, they wanted me! Because I am your friend and you, moreover, love me! It all fits! They work in two steps: first they break their victim’s mind, because our mind works like a protective wall for our body, and then they can absorb it´s energy without any resistance! And that´s why that pony wanted to kill Silverleaf and me: to weaken your mind and to get your energy!”
“My energy?” Twilight asked shocked.
“I´m afraid, but…” Bleach´s father added his statement “…he´s right. You know about your great magical potency and we two furthermore can see it. Your immense stock of pure magical energy would surely make them very much stronger in just a few moments! In this nightmare, you had, they had tried to break your mind but failed. So they had to weaken it and that´s why they killed Silverleaf. Because she´s your best friend and had a, don´t blame me for saying that, weaker mind than Bleach…”

All three shared a moment in silence, everypony of them lost in their own thoughts.
Finally, Bleach changed the topic and turned to his father: “Well…now, it´s your turn, dad: What happened after you heard my shout for help? You haven´t told me anything except for that you and Celestia had saved us.”
His father waved his hoof. “Oh, there´s nothing special I could tell you. After we heard your scream…”
“We?”
“Nevio, Soarin´, Spitfire and I. Well, after we heard your scream, Soarin´ looked through the window of the library and told me, you were chased by some creepy dangerous shadows and that there´s some kind of barrier behind the window. So, I sent him and Spitfire to call for Celestia.
Meanwhile, I ran to the library and tried to break the barrier, but it was too strong for me. Celestia finally broke it when she arrived and together, we entered the library, banished the surprised alicorn-shadows back in the book and sealed them inside. I also had sent out some guards to find the pony that cast the spell and the alicorns, but they hadn´t find anything…”

“Wait a second: Are you talking about the Soarin´ and the Spitfire?” his son interrupted him. “Why had they been there?”
“They helped me with Nevio.”
“Oh, mentioning him how is he doing?” Twilight interposed.
“He is…in a stable state, to say so. He…tried to kill himself, jumped out of the window in the tenth floor. I finally managed to calm him. He is trying to keep himself busy. At the moment, he is planning Silverleaf´s funeral at Monday together with her family.”
“You gave him a chamber in the tenth floor?” Bleach frowned. “You once had been more intelligent before…” he quipped and smirked. His father snorted.
“That is why I had called for Soarin´ and Spitfire. I am not that witless! After all, you of all ponies have to say that, Mister Catch-A-Murder-On-My-Own-Without-Calling-The-Guards…”
“Okay, okay…how have you calmed him?”
“I…” he looked to the ground. “I told him…”
Bleach realized and his look went to the ground, too. “You…told him…about her, right? About…mom…” the word stung in his heart. Just as always somepony touched this old scar. He felt a wave of depression coming up and closed his eyes, caught back in dark memories.
But the wave instantly died down when he felt a pony hugging him and nuzzling his neck. He opened his eyes and faced Twilight´s caring shining purple eyes. She planted a kiss on his cheek and whispered: “Don´t be sad! You know she´s always with you.” She put a hoof on his heart and felt its calm steady rhythm. “Right here…”
He just smiled and kissed her soft on the lips. The dark memories were gone. “Thank you…”

Bleach´s father simply watched the scene in front of him and smiled. Seems that true love can heal every scar… he thought. I just hope this love will last longer than mine…
He silently turned around to leave the room and let the young lovers alone. He would give Bleach his present another day. He opened the door and was already outside, when he turned around in the threshold one last time. “Oh, I forgot to tell you: Your parents wanted to visit you this afternoon, Twilight. They didn´t tell me an exact time, but…just to inform you.”

Twilight gave a thankful nod and after that, he finally left the room and closed the door. The purple mare and her lover left alone.
“Do you know, what I´m asking me all the time?” Twilight asked after a short silence.
“What?”
“Now that this book is in our hooves and no longer with this unknown murder: What is with him? Without it, he is surely harmless, or what do you think?”
Bleach put a hoof to his chin. “Hmm…I don´t know. If this pony really wants to revive these alicorns from the book, it won´t give up so easily…but my father and the guards will surely find it during our absence.”
“Our absence?” Twilight asked frowning.
“You remember that special mission I mentioned?” She nodded. “Well, our mission is: Leaving Canterlot to be safe from that murder and researching about that alicorns and finding a way to neutralize their powers. If you ask me, the only way to do that is killing them, but how do you kill somepony without a body?”
“And…when do we leave?” she asked, ignoring his last thoughts. She won´t think about such things at the moment.
“Monday, after Silverleaf´s funeral.” he answered honestly.
“And where are we going to hide ourselves from that murder?”

“At a small town south-west from Canterlot, called ‘Ponyville’…”

______________________________________________________________________

Ch.2 - A New Home - Pt.2 - Born to Live and Die

Chapter 2 – A New Home

Part 2 – Born to Live and Die

Black was omnipresent...

Black vests, black shirts, black hats, black dresses, everything was black. Even the sky was black…and crying - a special unscheduled order from the princess herself. It was sign of her commiseration, sign, that she was mourning too, even if she wasn´t there.

The Canterlot Cemetery was filled with ponies this morning. They all gathered around one single grave. The shining white burial case, creating a sharp contrast to the ubiquitous black, levitated above it held by the four pallbearers in their black suits. It was the sign of the innocent soul, which was going to find her eternal rest and which had left this world way too early…

Everywhere and in every pony´s face was grief and sadness.
They had come all. Her family of course in the first row, followed by Nevio´s family and her classmates, which were exempted from lessons this morning.
And, directly in front of the grave, were her best friends.
Nevio, her love, and Twilight and Bleach. Nevio wore an elegant black suit, a black trilby and a black umbrella because of the rain. His short black mane and dark brown fur seemed to be darker than usual, fitting his mood. He was, like his friends next to him, lost in thoughts and nostalgia.
Bleach only wore his black surcoat, already drenched from the rain. His gaze was fixated on the white casket in front of him, small tears leaving his eyes and mixing with the rain.
Twilight had a black dress with stylized stars and a crescent moon-formed brooch, a present Bleach gave her at her last birthday after Silverleaf had spied out what she liked and not liked. A white calla lily was attached in her hair. The rain ignored her. She knew a spell which let the rain flow around her and had cast it on her this morning. Her head was lowered to the ground and tears also streamed down her face, protected from mixing with the rain because of her spell.

At another end of the mourners, a certain pony with a matt black vest stared at the casket with a blank look, his thoughts unfathomable for the ones around him. And that was his blessing, together with the rain Celestia had ordered just as she wanted him to hide his tearless face. Otherwise, maybe somepony would have been very curious about his emotionless bearing.
He grinned inwardly. If they only knew that the one who initiated the need of this funeral was among them! Lost in devilish thoughts, Silverleaf´s murder just stood there and stared at the casket, his false raindrop-tears covering his feigned emotions.

One by one, the ponies now placed colorful flowers on the coffin, right beneath a photo of the deceased pony in a wooden picture frame. It showed the innocent silver filly wide smiling at a beach in front of a braking wave. Her silver coat and green-white mane shone in the sun, her golden eyes sparkling with youthful enthusiasm and joy.
Soon, the casket was filled with countless lilies, hydrangeas, roses and sundry other flowers, primary white ones. Nevio´s bouquet consisted of a big white rose, sign of evanescence and death, but also love, combined with five lilies in antique pink, standing for the victim´s pureness, some marguerites, the sign for his shed tears, and lilies of the valley, sign for youth and his pure love for her.
Being in love with a florist had caused that some of her knowledge about flowers and their meaning had rubbed off on him. She would have been proud of him.
The posy was just…perfect. Perfect for a pure loved innocent soul, that had left earth way too soon…

He shook his head. After everypony had placed its flower or bouquet on the coffin, or next to it after there was no more place on it, Nevio looked over the image in front of him over one last time…and frowned. One thing was unfitting…really unfitting!
Between the entire white flowers Nevio saw a yellow carnation, attached to a bunch of meadowsweet! He remembered: The yellow carnation signified ‘abhorrence’ and the meadowsweet…’uselessness’?
Frantically he looked around. Who had placed that unfitting bouquet on top of his filly´s coffin? And why? He thought back at the things Bleach and Twilight had told him the day before.
Silverleaf´s death should only cause a weakening of Twilight´s mind, a total shock for him when he heard the first time about it! And now, after her murder´s failed attack at Bleach, Twilight´s mind was restored. That, at least, would explain the ‘uselessness’ of the meadowsweet. And the yellow carnation? Maybe his emotion after his failed attack?

Anyhow, Nevio felt certain, that that bouquet belonged to Silverleaf´s murder! Oh, why he hadn´t watched better! He looked at his friends which only gave him an asking look. They didn´t notice the unfitting flower on the casket. He sighed and shook his head.
Maybe this hadn´t had been the murder. Maybe it had been just somepony without knowledge of the language of flowers and with a very bad taste.

He took a firm deep breath and emptied his thoughts, ready to go on with the funeral. He exhaled and his thoughts were back at Silverleaf. He looked at Octavia and her musicians and the pallbearers and nodded silently, the sign to take the final step.

And soon, the first tones of a song were played, proclaiming of grief, but also hope. New tears appeared in the faces of everypony as the melody permeated the mourners and the casket began to lower.

And with the melody, the thoughts of four ponies echoed in their heads…

You didn´t deserve this!

You didn´t deserve this!

Silvy, sweetie…just why…

Your death was completely useless!

I find it hard
Since you´ve been gone
In the shadows of the dawn
I keep holding on

How many times
Do I think of what we had
That beloved day
That rests in the past

Imagining how it all could be
You´re walking on the crossroads right beside me
My thoughts rotate since the day you´ve passed away
Wondering, where you may be

We´re born to feel alive
Under gracious skies
Recalling what you said
When you closed your eyes

We´re born to live and die
In the wonders of our time
So treasure every moment
And the love there is to find

You were the most innocent filly I ever met in my entire lifetime! Why? Why can´t I be the one lying in that coffin instead of yours…

I vow you Silv, I won´t rest until your murder is found and got the punishment he deserves! I VOW, do you hear me?

I was so happy… I should´ve been a happy father with a happy filly and foal at my side! And what am I now?... I miss you so madly, Silvy…SO madly…

Thanks to your effing friends and that damned bitch Celestia, I have to restructure all my plans! All the work, all my efforts, simply overthrown because of that darn fucking Bleach! Why he had to shout for help? Do you know what I did to calm myself?...

Here in this moment
I feel you from afar
As I mourn and pray
Standing by your grave

And it hurts
To conquer this grief
To have no remorse
Stranding on new shores

What would I give to allow myself to dream
To look into the future, without agony
I see a meaning since the day you´ve passed away
Still wondering, where you may be

We´re born to feel alive
Under gracious skies
Recalling what you said
When you closed your eyes

We´re born to live and die
In the wonders of our time
So treasure every moment
And the love there is to find

If I only had been weaker! If only my mind had been a little bit weaker… I would give anything to see you alive again! And I think, I´m not the only one… But all this has a sense, hasn´t it? All happenings always have a meaning, right? Right...?

Did you hear me? I swear it, in the name of the whole damn world´s sake! I vow your death wasn´t worthless!

But I´ll go on! For both of us! And our never-born foal! I swear to you, I´ll always live for all three of us! I promise! You´ll always have your special place in my heart! You left an unerasable trace in it, which I never could forget. You were my love! My everything! My world! My life…My one and only Silvy...

I burned half of the Canterlot City Park! The park you and your so beloved friends always liked that much! Pity that the forester´s family escaped the fire… Hmpf! Self-inflammation because of too much heat from the sun? At night? Ha! I never heard a better joke, Canterlot Times! Well, calming the citizen. Letting them in the dark that there´s now an arsonist out there, too! Ha, a murder and a torch… The citizen would panic instantly! What a beautiful scenario…
Oh, and that bouquet was a good idea, wasn´t it? You should´ve seen your beloved´s face! And nopony had noticed me! That was a masterstroke, wasn´t it?
Anyway, I think it´s time to say good bye! But don´t worry about maybe being alone! I´ll send you friends soon enough… Just stay and wait for it…

We´re born to feel alive
Under gracious skies
Recalling what you said
When you closed your eyes

We´re born to live and die
In the wonders of your time
So treasure every moment
And the love there is to find

Rest in peace, Silverleaf…

Rest in peace, Silv, dear friend…

Rest in peace, Silvy sweetie, my never dying love…

Rot in hell, slut!

The song ended and Silverleaf´s coffin was lowered to the ground completely and the pallbearers slowly began to fill the grave with earth. Excepting the scraping sound of the spades, the silence around was complete.
After that, Bleach softly nudged his love next to him and looked into her eyes, an unspoken question in his own eyes. She only smiled soft and nodded, knowing his desire.

He smiled back and nuzzled her cheek, and then he turned around and left…

______________________________________________________________________

Through big curious shining sky-blue eyes she looked him. Her coat had a pale pink and her shaggy mane and tail were dark blue. Wrapped in soft blankets, she bleary watched him silently.
She was a small filly.
She was a baby.
She was dead…

It was funny. She may was dead, but still the photo of her woke happy memories inside him. Memories of a hug…
…and a small kiss which made him fell for her.
But that was not the only reason, why the photo of his little sister meant so much for the young Auraknight. It supported him. It had pulled him out of a pool of deepest depression after his mother had died. It showed him, that his sister had lived, that she had had the chance to see the world! She died, sure, but just knowing, that she at least had been alive for some hours gave him a feeling of deep peace with himself and his feelings.
It was just funny…

“In the end, it´s just sad…” a voice behind him sighed low. He turned around from the light gray gravestone he stood in front of and faced the two sparkling purple orbs which meant so much for him.
He exhaled and lowered his gaze, the photo of his sister still levitating in front of him. The rain had stopped after he had left the funeral to see his mother´s and sister´s grave. Now, the funeral was over and the mourners on the other side of the graveyard dispersed.
“Yes it is…but still…” he looked at her with his two oceans, a grateful smile on his face “Thank you…”

She just smiled and nuzzled his cheek. “No need to thank me, Bleach. You already had done years ago!”
“And still…” he insisted, answering her nuzzling with a tender kiss “You gave so much to me in all these years of our friendship! With this one photo, you had pulled me out of deepest depression! You had brought happiness back to my life when I thought there was no more left! You are always there to listen to my sorrows! You give love and care to me, so much I think I´m drowning every moment! You just make me feel good! You-“
And one more time, he was silenced by the soft lips of her.
“And again, you are talking way too much…” she whispered softly after breaking the kiss. “And I think, your last words are mutual. You also are always caring about me, giving me all your love and are always making every effort to see me happy!”

After another few moments of silence and eyes-locking, Twilight chuckled.

“To be honest…” she began “I am surprised to see you carrying that photo still with you after all this years.”
He chuckled in response. “Why? It is my personal lucky charm and I´m always carrying it with me when I wear my surcoat, right in the breast inside pocket. You can´t imagine how I felt when Celestia had wrapped it in flames with her magic! I thought it would lacerate my heart! I was so relieved to see it unharmed, my favorite gift from my special mare!”
“Your father has a picture of her too, you know? It isn´t that unique!” she waved dismissive with her hoof.
“My father!” he snorted with disappointment “I can´t believe he never got the strength to tell me about my sister! He lied at me all these years!”
“He only wants to protect you, Bleach! Can´t you see it?” the scholar argued. “Do you remember what happened after he had told you your mother had died? That she´ll never come back? Do remember what you did? What you tried? And what I accepted to s-“
“SHUT UP!” he snapped suddenly and regretted it instantly when he saw her stern look. He shouldn´t snap at his savior and love like that. It was thankless!
He lowered his head in shame and sighed. “I´m sorry…” he apologized. “It´s just…I don´t want to think about it right now. Not here…” his gaze went back to the gravestone.

Twilight followed his gaze and also lowered her head a bit. “I´m sorry. I shouldn´t have tormented you with old memories. I should have known how you react on them…”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Nonsense. It has been nearly ten years now. I really should be over it. It´s just…events like these leave a scar that never wants to heal completely. And my scar still aches if you touch it too strong…” he sighed and turned his attention back to his sister´s photo. “Anyway…you are right. I shouldn´t be bad with my father. Nopony can be bad with him for trying to pretend me from depression and myself. After all I had tried to kill myself! I was such an idiot! I am so glad that you and Silv had saved me from drowning. I owe you my life! Nothing can make up to this!” he meant decided and pecked her.

Now, Twilight giggled. “Oh, don´t say that! You more than made it up! You also saved my life in the library…“
“After I implicated you into that threatening situation.” he commented dry but the purple filly ignored it and went on.
“…and cared for me so lovingly while I slept! Do you know that this was the sweetest thing somepony, excluding my family, ever had done for me?”
“Thank you…” he whispered smiling, looking into her eyes, before he turned back to the photo.

“But anyway…” he then continued “I wished I at least would know her name…”

Twilight shrugged. She once had found the picture of Bleach´s father by accident whilst she had visited them. He had explained it to her and she had to promise not to tell Bleach about it - a promise she couldn´t keep. Who could have known that seeing his little sister would pull him out of his depression instead of drowning him in it? Anyway, his father never had mentioned her name…

“Hope…”

“What did you say?” Bleach asked his love, still staring at the picture and the grave.
“Me? I thought it was you speaking.”
“I haven´t said anything.” he frowned and looked around, just to find a chuckling pony standing behind them.
“Guess I really should stop sneaking at ponies from nowhere like that, huh?” Bleach´s father asked and approached the duo.

“Yeah…you really should…” his son answered, trying awkwardly to hide to photo behind him. “So…what did you say?”
“Hope.” he repeated and explained, noticing the asking look on the white youngster´s face “The answer you have asked for, you know? The name of the filly you are trying to hide awkwardly behind your back. Her name was ‘Hope’.”

Bleach just sighed and stopped hiding the photo, levitating it in front of him.
“So finally the cat´s out of the bag…” his father sighed too, looking stern at the purple filly, who had slowly and nearly unrecognizable withdrawn herself a few steps from the duo.
“Twilight?” the elder stallion stopped her in her track. She looked up at him sheepishly smiling.
“Um…yes?” A cocking eyebrow of the stallion was enough to make her explain herself. She sighed. “I´m sorry I broke my promise. I shouldn´t have done that, but…I just had to do it! I just hadn´t been able to stand and watch by Bleach´s dejection anymore! And I knew that the knowledge of his sister´s existence, had been it ever so short, would cure him! So I had asked at the hospital if they have another copy of it and after they had given me one, I presented it him. Please don´t hate me now…”

A giggle was the only answer after a while. “Don´t worry, Twilight. I won´t hate you. You may have acted way more intelligent than I had with hiding her existence…”
“But you only wanted to protect me!” Bleach interposed. “No pony can blame you for that!”
He waved a hoof in response. “Enough of that. What´s done cannot be undone.”
“One question…” Bleach asked.
“Fire away.”
“Why did you call her ‘Hope’?”
Now, the gaze of the elder Auraknight went to the grave and began to explain: “After your mother had died, you surely can imagine how I felt. It was just…I can´t describe. It was horrible! My brain just hadn´t wanted to accept the truth. Anyhow, after she had passed away, the nurses tried at least to save the baby - your sister. They said it would be difficult and the chance to save her slim. But they made it, as you know. At the moment they showed her to me, I was just happy. I called her ‘Hope’, because I knew I could get over your mother´s death with her.”
A joyless chuckle. “When she died four hours later, I just thought: That´s fate´s sarcasm. The dying hope…”

Suddenly, somebody behind the trio coughed slightly and they turned around to face the new one.
“I really don´t want to disturb you…” a small purple dragon with a black smoking began “…but our train goes in about one hour and I don´t want us to miss it.”
Twilight giggled. “Do you know that you´re better than every schedule book, Spike? You are moveable!”
“Um…Thank you?” he answered, unsure how to feel about this comment.
“Haven´t you ever heard about pocket calendars?” Bleach´s father asked.
“You don´t know what she defines as a pocket calendar…” Bleach only replied, earning a chuckle from his father.

“Anyway, can we go now? It´s still half an hour to the station, so let´s get moving!” the baby dragon pushed them.
“All right. We´re coming.” Twilight replied eye-rolling, placed the small dragon on her back with her magic and waited for her love. “Are you coming, Bleach?”
“Just give me a minute. I´ll catch you up, okay?”
“Whatever you say…” she answered and pecked a kiss on his lips before she left with his father.

Bleach was alone one more time and turned back to his mother´s grave one last time. His horn began to glow and out of his saddlebag levitated two white lilies. He placed them gently on the grave beneath him, one for his mother and one for his sister.
Hey mom! Hey sis!
We might won´t see us for a while… he thought …but don´t worry. I´ll keep an eye on me. And on Twi of course! After all, she´s now, somehow, my fillyfriend! I promise I won´t let anypony of us get killed by that murder! We´ll see us again, whole and unharmed! He sighed. Well, I have to go now. The others are waiting…Bye mom! Bye Hope…so that we´ll see us back soon…

He stood there for another minute and then, he reluctant trotted off to catch up with the others…

______________________________________________________________________

A train, huh?
He looked at his watch.
Shoot. Nearly twelve o´clock. And half past, lessons continue and I have to be back at school to not make myself conspicuous. Impossible, even with teleporting! Damn! Why couldn´t they just say, where they´re going!
He snuck a peek from his stash behind a big tomb and looked at the three ponies with the purple dragon in the distance.
It was predictable that Celestia would evacuate them. And I´m sure, they also have my pretty dark ones!
He growled.
But don´t worry, my beloved cravings! Soon, I´ll reunite us and th-

“Oh, here you are!”
He snapped out of his dark thoughts when he suddenly heard the mare´s voice behind him and turned around.
“What are you doing here?” his elder twin sister asked frowning. Like his own also her coat was light gray and her mane and tail dark gray, just a little bit longer and straighter than his. She wore a simple black dress and on her back she carried a big black box, nearly as big as herself, and her cello inside.

“Oh, hi Tavi.” he greeted her with faked glee, hiding his darkest intentions from her. “I´m…um…Oh, yeah, I was just looking around. Thought I would find a familiar name on one of the gravestones…”
“I see.” she smiled. “And? Did you find something?”
He nodded. “Uh-huh! Shadow Star. A former classmate of me. Sad story. One day, they had found him dead in the school´s cellar and never found his murder. Rumors say that he practiced with dangerous spells and one of them had accidentally killed him. Others say he exported his soul out of his body into the world of dreams. You have to know: He was a dream magician and had always been some kind of dreamer. He could manipulate dreams into every direction. And not only his own dreams! While he slept, he had access to every dream of every pony in the world! Oh, I was always sooooo jealous at him!”

Octavia giggled. “You and jealous? Come on, kid brother! You also aren´t the worst magician out there!”
He giggled too. “Yeah…maybe you´re right…”
“Well, I have to go now. The band and I have practice today, so…bye! Oh, and I´m very glad I saw you here, even if you had separated from Silverleaf and her friends. We meet so very rare since you have your own chamber at the school…”
He nuzzled her. “I promise to visit you, okay?”
“Okay…” She smiled and giggled. “You´re drenched.”
“Oh, yeah…mislaid my umbrella…”
“Better you dry yourself or you´ll get a cold.” she said smiling while turning around and leaving. “Bye Lucy!” she sang and trotted off.

“Bye Tavi!” he cat-called at her smiling.
’Lucy’…If you weren´t my sister, the ‘kid brother’ would have been enough for a dagger in your throat! he thought grimly.
When Octavia was out of sight, he sighed. He hated to disguise his true self!
But not for much longer…

Casually, his horn glowed and the rain water poured out of his soaked vest, drying it instantly. He gathered the water in front of him, splitting it into two small bubbles.
Anyway, I have to figure out where they are going to! I have to get back the dark ones!
He smiled sinister. The bubbles formed into two long thorns.
Seems like I have to visit an old friend…Beware Bleach and Twilight! Soon, I´ll find you! And when I found you, I´ll take my dark ones back…”
The two water-thorns got colder and formed into ice…and suddenly shot out and speared the blossoms of a white rose and a purple tulip of a nearby grave.

…and crush your hearts…

______________________________________________________________________

Preoccupied, he sat on his bed in their stateroom of the train to Ponyville. The beautiful scenery of the cliffs of Canterlot and the sight over the Everfree Forest drifted by on the window. The metal of the dagger in his hooves, one of the pair his father presented him only a few minutes ago at the train station, was gleaming in a faint shining green.

Bleach was smiling wide.
“I still can´t believe he really had let them repair!” he mumbled and put the dagger with the stylized flowers back in the white leather sheath with the red rose.
“Seems that he really loves you…” Twilight commented absentminded from the bed above his.
“Or he just knows how much they´re meaning to you.” Spike meant next to him.
“Maybe…” the white stallion agreed chuckling. “They really mean very much to me. Just like everything that beautiful sweet purple mare above us presented to me.”
“You are such a sweet talker…” she responded giggling and eye-rolling.

“I felt really rough after they had molten in the library.” he simply continued “And that my father had let them made of a crystal-metal alloy! Sure, it somehow aren´t the origins anymore, but it still are the daggers you gave me. And the new alloy really is more practical.”
“Yeah…sweet aventurines…rubies…sapphires…” Spike panted, licking his lips and looking at the two pairs of daggers in front of the young Auraknight.
“Keep your claws away from my daggers, Spike!” the youngster reminded the purple dragon. “I warn you. You´ll be sorry if I find only one bite mark at them!”
He groaned and looked out the window. “Okay…”

“What are you doing up there anyway? You are unfamiliar quiet.” Bleach asked his love.
“Thinking…” Twilight replied.
“About what? Our activities when we´re finally alone this night?” he quipped with his habitual sassiness.
She snickered. “You´re such an idiot…”
“Just the idiot you love…” he hit back, climbing up to her and stealing a kiss from her lips, involving more pecks and giggles.

“Oh brother…” the baby dragon just sighed and rolled his eyes. “If love means acting like this, please spare me Celestia…”

“Anyhow…what are you thinking about?” he finally asked again serious now, lying down next to her and inhaling her beautiful rose-violet-scent.
“About the book, of course.” the purple mare replied, tapping with one hoof on the mysterious old tome in front of her Bleach´s father had given them at the station. “I´m trying to figure out, what these signs on the cover could stand for. I know, they´re standing for the cravings, but there are only six of them and twelve signs. That makes no sense!”
“Maybe they signify this Ariadne and her friends.” Bleach suggested.
“But the book is way older than them. It existed when they even hadn´t been alive yet!”
“And what is about these elements this lust-mare mentioned in your dream? These…’Elements of Harmony’? Maybe they´re an old power and reborn in these six ponies.”
“But what are these strange ‘Elements of Harmony’?” Twilight asked confused.
Bleach only shrugged. “I don´t know. But hadn´t that Ocean said something about being the ‘Element of Kindness’ and that he´s it no longer anymore?”
“Hmm…”

“Hey!” the black-maned youngster suddenly said and tapped on one of the twelve signs, the one next to a big flame. “Had you already noticed that this one looks a little bit like your cutie-mark?”
Twilight frowned and looked closer at the sign: a star with five prongs. He was right. Okay, the stars in her cutie-mark had six prongs and it wasn´t only one single star, but one similarity existed.
“Yeah…funny coincidence…And that is Odium´s and that the lust-mare´s cutie-mark…” she explained and tapped first on the flame next to the star and then the unmistakable-crossed Venus-Mars-sign.
“And that must be Gula´s.” Bleach added and pointed at a symbol that showed some kind of wide-opened maw. That the white stallion didn´t really believe, the similarity between the sign and Twilight´s cutie-mark would be just pure coincidence, he didn´t tell her.

“I…I am…afraid…” Twilight admitted, laying a hoof on the book.
Bleach just smiled, nuzzling her cheek to encourage her. “I know. But don´t worry. My father assured me that it´s safe to open it. Celestia´s and his seals are strong enough to keep them inside.”
“You´re right…” she smiled back and put the book back into her saddle bag. “…but…we may just should wait until tomorrow and brace our energies for the things that are ahead of us…”

Her lover´s answer was a low chuckle and a soft kiss.
“You´re really very unlike you today…

and I somehow like it…”

Placidly, the train slowly chugged through the beautiful landscape of the Canterlot Mountains. The three special passengers tried to bridge the time with chatting and little games like ‘I spy’. Occasionally, the three had a little nap, Bleach and Twilight huggling together in one bed.
Twilight also read in some of her own books she had with her in her saddle bags. She also quizzed Bleach about some simple offensive magic spells for emergencies and he unwillingly answered and explained some simple techniques to her, not really wanting her to fight against something. But in the end, it may wasn´t that bad if she could defend herself a little bit.
She also studied a small note her brother had given to her.
Her parents were still unaware of the true reason of Twilight´s departure and the things that truly had happened in the library. Otherwise, they never would have let her go. But her brother as one of the high generals of the royal guards of course had heard what had realy happened and had insisted her to learn the spell on the note. It was, unsurprisingly, a protect-spell. Shining Armor always had been a master at this kind of magic. He really lived up to his name!

In the late evening, the train reached the foothills of the Canterlot Mountains where the Hackney Plains began and soon, the first lights of Ponyville could be seen.
When the trio finally reached the station, it was nearly completely empty. Only a few single ponies also managed their way out the station into the quiet town.

The nightlife of Ponyville was very calm. They only saw one or two restaurants and a single unfrequented bar on their way to their temporary new home.
At a leisurely trot, they slowly approached the city library - their home - with the help of a small city map. After several minutes, they reached their target.
The first reaction of them was a frown.

The city library was built in a huge tree!
Well, it at least looked very quaint.

Inside, Twilight was the first one who felt comfortable with her new accommodation. The many books in the entrance room and the fragrance of the bright wood mixed with the scent of old and new books remembered her at Celestia´s personal library at home. If somepony had asked her a few hours earlier, she hadn´t been sure if she really would feel comfortable in a library again after the happenings of the past week.
But this was just perfect!
The first thing Bleach did was checking the firefighting equipment. One extinguisher in every room, easy escape route and, in the case of emergency, breakable windows - perfect!
The only thing Spike checked was his bed. Celestia had sent his favorite basket from Twilight´s chamber at school together with his favorite white pillow and a smooth red blanket - perfect!

After they had made their selves comfortable with the new accommodation, a rumbling in their stomachs led them into the eat-in kitchen of the library.
The princess had provided very well. The fridge and cupboards were filled with several foods for everypony´s taste.
Twilight and Bleach made themselves some sandwiches while Spike found some agates inside one of the cupboards. Happy with their new home and slightly exhausted from the long trip, they enjoyed their late supper with occasional yawns.

Spike was the first to finish his meal and let out a long final yawn, wishing the two youngsters good night. The couple wished him also good night and returned chatting to their meal.
After that, they washed the dishes together.
Bleach persistent took the opportunity to peck his love´s lips, cheeks and neck and teased her during drying the dishes, just to earn small giggles and halfhearted ‘Stop it’s and ‘Idiot’s from her.
After they finally had finished, they went upstairs to inspect the rooms there.

Well, to be exact, there was only one big room, next to a small bathroom…

There were also some filled wooden bookshelves like in the library´s main room and a huge window, where the silver gleaming moon could be seen. There were also some wooden chairs, a table and a desk with a quill, ink and some sheets of paper on it.
But what caught the youngsters´ attention in the end, was a huge marital bed on the room´s left side. And if Bleach was honest, considering that his father had helped with the arrangement of their temporary home, he could have expected something like that.
It was not that he was afraid of sharing a bed with the purple mare, they now were a couple after all and additional they knew and trusted each other since years of friendship, but it was a new experience for him though and he kinda felt uneasy about being forced to this. There was no couch, no armchair, nothing to avoid each other if one of them would feel uneasy with the thought of sleeping together.

Both chuckled and blushed slightly, Bleach mumbling a low ‘Typically dad’, before Twilight nuzzled him and slowly approached one side of the bed with the big soft dark red pillows and big sky-blue blankets.
The Auraknight smiled, happy that she seemed to have no problem with the thought of sleeping in one bed with him. He turned out the lights and both climbed on the smooth bed and snuggled into their bedcovers, wishing each other good night.

After a while, Bleach turned in his bed, searching a comfortable recumbent position, just to bump muzzles with his love.
The sight was simply mesmerizing!
Twilight lay in front of him, her sparkling eyes half-lidded and the beautiful face and her curves under the blanket highlighted by the silver moon light, which flowed through the big window.

She smiled slightly, blushing.

He did the same.

And the following kiss led them into a night filled with passion and love, the details treasured in their memories and never told to another pony…

______________________________________________________________________

It was nearly midnight and he was still working in his atelier beneath his cottage. The big grey printing machine was printing a huge poster at the moment, a new exemplar for his collection at the white walls, which are covered with several other posters made by him.
They showed landscapes like a beautiful sight beyond the cliffs of the Canterlot Mountains, wide plains or, one of his favorites, a romantic picture of a sunset at the Southern Beach, a young couple in the middle sitting together and leaning against each other, dreamily watching the golden sun.

And of course, there were pictures of her…
Everywhere was her sweet smile, on small pictures or big posters; everywhere he saw her beautiful face, her sparkling golden eyes, her shining silver coat and the waving green mane with the white streak.

Nevio smiled. Silverleaf would never really leave him. Somehow, she always would be present. The printing machine stopped and he took the new poster to find its special place on his wall.
He finally decided, because the picture had turned out very well, to pin it above the counter in the lobby of his small photo shop. With the rolled-up poster in his mouth, he left his atelier, paying attention to the many cables around and walking around a collection of different background images for the customers who wanted him to take special photos of them.

The brown stallion always had been a good photographer. His cutie-mark, a photo of a flying butterfly, was the first picture he had taken in his life. That day, he had been in the park with his parents and he had asked them if could also take some photos with their camera and when he finally saw the pictures he took, he had known that this would be his talent and his fate. And then, his cutie-mark had appeared.

Thinking at this old story, he took on the lights of the lobby and fetched his ladder. He already wanted to climb it and pin the poster at the wall when he heard a cautious knock at the door.
Nevio frowned and looked at the clock on the white wall to his right. The time-piece above the brown sofas for the waiting customers announced a quarter to eleven. Who wanted something from him at this time? And why would somepony knock at his shop while there was a big ‘closed’-sign on the door. Because of the lights?
Anyhow, whoever it was, because of the big glass window front and the glass door, the unknown customer could see him but Nevio could only see his own reflection.

Ignoring was useless, so he answered: “I´m sorry, but it´s closed. Please come back tomorrow!”
“Nevio? It´s me…Can we talk?...”
The photographer frowned even more, knowing the voice´s owner.
“Lucien?” he asked back with surprise and less glee. “What do you want here?”
“Just talking…please?” was the answer.

The brown stallion sighed and laid down the poster, trotting over to the door and opening it a little bit, just to peek outside and find the light gray stallion he once called a ‘friend’ standing there in the black vest he wore this morning at the funeral.
“What is it, Lucien?” Nevio questioned impatiently into the night.
“Well…How should I tell you…”
“Will you hurry up?” he urged him on.
“Well…I wanted to say sorry…for my behavior in the past, you know?”
Nevio made a disbelieving face. “You show up at my shop in the middle of the night just to say sorry? Excuse me if I won´t buy that from you!”
“But it´s true! I know, it´s a little bit sudden, but…” the stallion with the dark gray mane sighed. “Since she had gone, I´m all the time thinking about my life and the things I had with you as my friends and my behavior and all…I was such an idiot, Nevio…I can´t turn back things, but…I at least wanted to ask you if you could forgive me…”
He narrowed his eyes. “You offended me and the others, maligned us, spread rumors about us and now, I just should do so as if it was nothing? Can you hear yourself talking? You are ridiculous!”
“I know that all sounds ridiculous, but…please, Nevio! What can I do to show you that I´ve really changed?” Lucien asked with begging green eyes.

Nevio thought for a moment. Was he right? Had he really changed? Sure, Silverleaf had been an old friend of him after all. And he also had visited the funeral this day. What would have done his love? Silverleaf with her golden heart would surely have said, that everypony deserves to get a second bit at the cherry.
And so, he should do.
With a final sigh, he opened the door to his shop completely.
“Okay…Come in.”
“Oh, thank you Nevio…”
“I give you a new lease on life! That doesn´t mean I forgive you everything you did, got that? Show me that you deserve it to forgive you!”
Lucien nodded frantically. “Alright...”

Also the brown stallion nodded and gave Lucien a small smile before he went back to his poster. He took it and aligned the ladder to find the perfect place for it on the white wall.
“What are you doing there?” Lucien asked, sitting down on one of the couches.
“Adding a new poster to my wall. I took that picture during our vacation trip to the Southern Coast and it turned out great! A very good promotion to show my skills to the ponies!” he explained, climbing the ladder.
“Sounds interesting. Can I somehow help you pinning it on the wall? I´m controlling some magic, you know?”
“Yeah, I remember.” he chuckled. “And it sometimes had been very useful, if you hadn´t burned something during practicing your fire-spells.”
“Yeah, I remember too! Don´t worry, I won´t burn it. Just leave it to me…”

With that, Lucien´s horn began to glow and the poster in Nevio´s mouth was enveloped by a gray shimmer. Lucien levitated it to the wall above the counter and slowly unfurled it.
“Just say, where you want to have it, okay?”
“Okay…a little bit right…a teeny tiny bit higher…an inch left…perfect!”
Lucien followed Nevio´s instructions and unfurled the poster completely…

…and nearly had dropped it.

He went wide-eyed with surprise.
But how? What? Where? This is…impossible!
Lucien had to compose his thoughts while he stared at the picture the brown stallion in front of him pinned on the wall. It showed Silverleaf in front of some kind of stone altar. She was standing in a big dome with glassy blue walls, some fishes swimming behind the walls. In the altar´s socket, there was an old relief, showing a scene with twelve fighting ponies. And on top of the altar, there was a huge transparent crystal.
It was THAT place!

“Fascinating, huh?” Nevio asked him proud, recognizing his stunned face.
Lucien swallowed hard, trying to maintain his composure.
“What is this place?” he managed to ask with a calm voice.
“I don´t know, to be honest. We found it during our trip one day. Seems to be some kind of old temple.”
“Where have you found it?”
“We one day decided to explore the cliffs in the east of the town where we had our accommodation. It was pure luck. We found an old cave inside the cliffs and Silverleaf wanted to explore it. And after a while of wandering, we found this dome.” He climbed down the ladder and took it back to its place, signalizing Lucien to follow him into his atelier. “Luckily, I had my camera with me that day. I took more photos of the dome, but this one was the best.”
“Can you show them to me?” Lucien questioned with anticipation, joining him in the adjacent room.
“I´m sorry, but I haven´t printed them, yet. But I have a map of the place where we found the cave.”
“You have a map? I know it´s a little bit brash now, but…could I borrow that map from you?”

It was unbelievable! He had searched for this place! He had researched thousands of books for it and these two lucky devils simply found it? And he had a map that could lead him there? This was the best day ever!
“Why?” Nevio asked frowning, searching some nearby black cupboards for the map.
“Uhm…Oh, there´s this one project at school: ‘Historical places in Equestria’. And all I have is the old castle of the royal sisters in the Everfree Forest. But this place really would spice up the whole thing!”
“Oh, if it´s only that…sure you can borrow it if you only need it for school.”
“Speaking about school: I was missing Twi and Bleach today. I saw them walk off with Bleach´s father after the funeral. I wanted to apologize by them too, but they aren´t at their chambers. You don´t know where they are, do you?” he questioned the brown photograph casually.

“Nope.” was the lied answer.
Lucien gritted his teeth.
“Well, I heard rumors they left with the train for a town far away from here. Allegedly at Celestia´s order. You are sure you haven´t heard something?”
Nevio frowned about the gray stallion´s persistence and the urge in his voice, but didn´t say anything, except of another “Nope.”
Lucien growled low. If he hadn´t something he wanted, he almost would have used the ‘unkindlier’ way to hear what he wanted to know.

“Ah, here it is!” Nevio suddenly said and closed the cupboard with a white folded sheet of paper in his mouth.
“Great!” the gray stallion jolted and made a few steps towards his old friend…and suddenly tripped over a pair of cables. With a gasp, he sprawled and landed with a low thump on the ground.

And then, there was a low metal clanging.

Lucien slowly rose back to his hooves, chuckling.
“He. I´m still the clumsy one, huh?”
Nevio´s response was a frightened face.
“Hey, what is it, Nevio? Don´t worry, I´m not hurt.”
The only answer, he got, was a wide-eyed frightened stare and a slight shiver. He frowned and followed the brown stallion´s gaze. He was looking at something beneath Lucien´s hooves.
“Oh, there´s the problem!” he chuckled with a wide grin and levitated the item of his old friend´s attention in front of him.
It was a dagger!

Nevio mumbled something, the map falling out of his mouth. It was too low for Lucien to understand.
“What did you say?” he asked, still levitating the dagger.
“You…”
“Oh, come on Nevio! You don´t really think what I think now, do you?”
“You…”
“Come on, that´s ridiculous! Since that murder´s out there, nearly every pony at school has some daggers to defend itself and-“
“LIAR!” the photograph burst out suddenly.

Lucien didn´t answer. He only watched Nevio.

“YOU KILLED HER!” he shouted at the gray stallion with tearful eyes. “You are the one who attacked Twilight and Bleach with these shadows, you killed my sweet Silverleaf in this painful and torturing manner, you took my love and my foal away! And you tried to get back my trust just to sound me out where Twilight and Bleach are hiding their selves now!”
“You´re making quiet serious allegations, Nevio…” Lucien meant blank.
“So what? I know it´s true!”
“And where are your evidences?”
“Your hoofmarks? They´re on the book? You wanna bet? And the yellow carnation and the meadowsweet surely have some fibers of your vest and your saddle bag on them, right?”
“He! You should have seen your face when you saw them on the casket! Unpayable!”

Nevio gritted his teeth and gave the odious stallion a look filled with hate.
Lucien only chuckled sinister at the sight. “Oh, are you bad with me now? Did I mess my new lease on life up?” he scoffed and answered Silverleaf´s friend´s gaze with a piercing glance. “Okay, and now serious, and I´ll ask you friendly only one time: Where are Bleach, Twilight and my beloved dark ones?”
Nevio didn´t answer. He wouldn´t betray his friends!
He swallowed.
Even if it means my death!

“No?”
Nevio remained silent. Lucien sighed.
“Well, at your desire. I secretly hoped to get this over without the ugly part, but…your decision!” And then, his horn began to glow in a faint yellow light.

Nevio instantly jumped to the side.
One second later, there was a loud thunder and a bright flash of light as a lightning streaked through the air and stroke the floor where he stood before.
He tackled Lucien after his failed attack, sending him to the ground and fled through the door into the lobby of the shop and towards the entry. He had to get help or he´d die!
He heard Lucien behind him rising back to his hooves, cursing him and casting a new spell. He nearly had reached the door, when he heard a loud swoosh behind him. Instinctively, he sprawled to the ground. The next thing he felt was an incredible heat on his back, when the elementalist´s raging blaze swept across his head. After it had ended, he rose back to his hooves, not caring about his singed coat, only to realize, that the front door was sealed with ice!

And then he was tackled to the ground and pinned with his back against the wall. Above him, he saw the gray stallion like he really was:
A maniac wide grin on his lips, blood thirst in his eyes and a dagger in his hooves.
So this was what Silverleaf saw when she died!
“I have to reclaim these dagger holsters. You only tumble a little bit and they drop out of them! Hmpf, garbage! But it somehow had quickened things a bit, don´t you think? And I was truly pissed off about that steady disguise, so I may have to thank them!” the dark stallion meant. “Anyhow, did you seriously think you could escape me? ME? The most powerful elementalist of Equestria? Very entertaining! You´re such a brave one, so you´ll get one very last chance before it gets dolorous: Where are your friends and the book?”
Nevio spit at him, defiance in his eyes.
“Never!”

Lucien only pinned him harder against the wall and raised his dagger.
“I warned you!”
And then, the dagger dug into the right shoulder of the brown colt.
The pain was nearly unbearable. Nevio screamed. He screamed as loud as he could, shouting for help. But, as always, Lucien had sealed the room with a spell of quietness.
“Yeah, scream! Scream out your pain! Nopony will hear you!”
He panted. The sharp stinging pain slowly subsided, but increased again instantly with every movement. Warm blood trickled down his coat. He looked back at Lucien.
“So? Are you now ready to cooperate?”
“No!” he panted. “I´ll never betray my friends!”
“Very sad…”

The dagger began to move in his shoulder, causing new pain. Nevio gasped and panted, clenching his teeth, denying his tormentor the screams he was craving for. His sight went blurry from tears, coming up in his eyes when the dagger continuous moved on, wandering to his armpit. More blood streamed out of him and he felt nearing unconsciousness.
“Well?”
“Ne…ver…”
“Tell me where your friends are or you can call yourself ‘Threehoof’!”
“N…Ni…ice na…me…” he smirked.

The devilish stallion´s face filled with mortal hatred and instantly, moved the dagger on, causing more pain inside Nevio.
“TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!” Lucien shouted, moving the blade forward merciless.
Nevio couldn´t hold anymore and began again to scream.
“NEVER!”
And then, he lost the feeling of his right fore hoof.

He screamed and cried, wriggling himself in his tormentor´s grip, but there was no hope to escape anymore!
“Come on…” he bleary heard a voice near his ear. “Give in to your cravings! You want to end this as much as I will. Commit the treason at your friends! I know you just want to scream it out. Come on, Nevio, where are they?”
The stallion bit his tongue. Ponyville! he wanted to shout out. They are in Ponyville! But he didn´t. He couldn´t!
But he wouldn´t stand the torture very much longer! He brought his head up and made a decision.

“Still nothing? He, you´re a tough one, my respect to that!” he raised the hoof with the dagger again and aimed. Just when the blade came down, Nevio rapidly caught Lucien´s hoof with his left one and changed its direction.
“You lost…” where his last words before he guided the blade into his heart.
“NO!” Lucien shouted, but it was too late.

Nevio only sighed relieved and closed his eyes, happy to have kept his friends save from the demonic stallion. There was a tingling in his limbs, spreading out and reaching out for his heart.
He didn´t fight against it. He already had won.

The world went black.

And then white.

And the last thing, he saw, was a silver-coated angel with a waving green mane and generous golden eyes, kissing him with tears of happiness and sadness…

Ch.2 - A New Home - Pt.3 - A Day Back To Normality!?

Chapter 2 – A New Home

Part 3 – A Day Back To Normality!?

Groaning, he awoke. Stretching, with a long yawn, mouth opened wide. His eyelids were heavy like somepony had hung a thousand-kilo-heft at them.
Shifting, the stallion snuggled closer to the mare next to him and laid his fore hooves around her chest, pulling her in for a soft embrace and kissed her neck, cuddling with her. Today, she seemed to be much softer than ever before, but he just liked it and kissed her again.

Last night was a complete blur, filled with hundreds of new sensations and experiences. There had been love, romance and passion, bliss and pleasure…
And everywhere was her, her gorgeous beauty, her radiant sparkling eyes, her soft fur, her sweet fragrance of roses and violets…

It was the moment when he realized that he was missing the latter right now, though his nostrils were right next to the mare of his dreams.
Finally, Bleach managed to open his eyes and chuckled when he noticed that he was only hugging Twilight´s crimson pillow.
No wonder that she was so soft… He smirked. And the fact that her scent isn´t so intense anymore means she´s awake for quite some time…what´s the time anyway… Lazily, he turned his head to his nightstand clock. “Wow, half-past ten! And I´m still dozy…oh, I´d hate to have school today…” he mumbled and smirked. “Heh, buck you, poor Lucien…”

Stretching himself one last time, he rolled off the bed and managed to stumble into the bathroom. Another quarter of showering, teeth, mane and tail brushing later he felt way more awake than before. Looking him over in the mirror he tied his long black mane up with a small black scrunchie just the way he knew Twilight loved it.
Taking a little bit of his usual spearmint-perfume he finally left the bath and headed for the library´s main room, which seemed to be the living room at the same time.

Trotting down the stairs with a cheerful smile, he recognized the lavender mare sitting at a wooden table, sipping on a cup of fresh tea and an opened book in front of her.
“Good morning, sweetie!” he greeted her, descending the last few stairs. In one corner of the room, he noticed Spike still sleeping in his basked, snoring slightly. Seemed like the baby dragon was even more exhausted than he was, though he definitely hadn´t done the same activities like him.
Beaming, Twilight looked up from her lecture.
“Good morning, sweetheart.” she replied and stood up, trotting over to him and greeting him with a soft kiss. “You slept long.” she assessed.
He grinned in response. “I was…kinda exhausted.”
“I can imagine very well…” she snickered and nuzzled him. “But Spike seems exhausted as well.” She meant with a side-glance to the sleeping purple dragon.
“He is after all just a baby dragon. He needs his sleep and the journey yesterday surely was very exhausting for him.” Bleach explained.

Twilight only nodded and trotted back to the table with her lover in tow.
“Do you want some breakfast?” she asked. “I made rosehip tea and some sandwiches.”
“I´d love to!” he answered and took place opposite of her.
“So…” he began, taking an apple sandwich “…when did you awake?”
“Shortly before seven.” she answered grinning with a sip of her tea. “I had never been a slugabed, you know? Anyway, I came down here, made some breakfast and began reading. That is all what I had done since.”
He chuckled, making an expansive gesture. “Well, there are enough books around us for an entire lifetime, if you´d ask me.”
“Yeah…” she chuckled too “…but the book I´m reading isn´t from the library…” she meant and levitated the tomb to show its cover and the all too familiar golden signs on it.

Bleach only cooked an eyebrow. “So you defeated your fear to open the book.” he stated and she nodded.
“I had to, if we want to get this over with. I…” a sigh “…I just want to get back some…commonplace… I just want to study and read books again without fearing that there´s something that wants to kill me. Just like before my nightmare…” her head sunk a bit “…and before…before Silverleaf…” she shook her head “No, things won´t be normal ever again! Not without her…”
A small tear streamed down her cheek. She was a little bit surprised, thought she would finally had run dry of them. Suddenly, she felt a hoof beneath her chin, softly forcing her to look up and into the blue eyes that meant everything to her, maybe more than even her books.
“Hey! It may won´t ever be exactly the same like before, but…in front of us, after all this is over, there lies a new normality! New possibilities! New friends! And I think Silverleaf will never leave us as long as we keep her in our hearts. I know she´s gone only a few days ago and it´s still hard, for you and for me. After all, she was our best friend. But…she became immortal…” smiling he laid his hoof at her heart. “…right here, in our memories.”
Twilight only chuckle-sobbed and swept the small tear away, smiling at him. “You always got the knack to encourage me…though, I´m not sure if I ever want to make new friends…”

“Hey, chin up! Do you know what you need?”
She answered with an asking curious look.
“A good old-fashioned date. Only you and me, picnicking at the park.” he suggested. “And on our way there, we´ll ramble about the town a little bit, there´s much to explore after all. What do you think? Just one normal day without crazy shadows, murders and cursed books.”
“Bleach, we have no time for this! We are on a mission! The princess trusts us! We cannot waste our time like that!”
But her lover just smirked.
“Well, my mission is only to protect the princess´ faithful student. That also includes protecting you from suffering and overworking!”
Twilight rolled her eyes in her usual ‘You-are-impossible!’-way.
“And, in addition, who said you can´t take the book with you. I may allow you to read one or two sentences at our picnic…”
“UGH, okay…But you forgot something, sunshine…” she meant and pointed at the still snoring basket.
“Well, then it´s you and me plus one.” he meant.
“Yeah, a real threesome.” his lover giggled ambiguous.
Now it was time for Bleach´s ‘You-are-impossible!’-eye-rolling. “Don´t you filch my ambivalent jokes!”
“Only if you don´t filch my eye-rolling anymore!” she hit back.
“UUUUGH…”
“And my moaning!”

______________________________________________________________________

Chatting about various things, they continued breakfasting. With time, a dozy groaning and yawning from Spike´s basket announced his awakening. Soon he joined the two lovers at the table and was added to their chatting.
When they finally cleared the table, it was nearly half past eleven. The idea of having a day off to picnic outside was just to the liking of the small purple dragon. Eagerly, he helped Twilight and Bleach with the preparations.

“Can I ask you something, Twi?” Bleach then questioned during their preparations.
“Sure. Fire away.”
“Well, you read in the book this morning.” he began. “I just wanted to ask if you have found out something interesting. About the alicorns and all…”
“Oh…”
Oh yeah, right, she hadn´t told him anything about the things she had found out, yet…
“I´m sorry I didn´t tell you. Though, you hadn´t asked, yet. And didn´t you say we wanted to forget the book for today? Anyhow, I didn´t find out very much. Only lots of history and how they were born and so on...”
“Well, that doesn´t sound that boring. Would you though mind to share the story with me?”
“If you insist…” she only answered and continued with her preparations, searching for a point to start.

“Once upon a time, every pony had been solitary. It was a simple time, without any technical progress or sociality. But the world around them had been wild and cruel, eat or been eaten was the basic rule of surviving. Soon they discovered the advantages of working together, and so, over the years and with breaking out of their primal lives, they began to form herds, settled down and began to build villages. And so, progress started.
Many years later the ancient pony folk colonized the whole planet and had developed a vague social system. Everything seemed peaceful, the fast progress was unstoppable and the cities boomed. But there was one malfunction in the world´s being, one thing missing, one thing the fast progress didn´t intend.

This one thing was harmony.

And so, the ancient ponies had been lost to their egoistic urges and needs. Without friends, without love, without care, all that was left was hostility and distrust. The ponies were solitary again, everypony fighting on its own.
And out of their cravings, out of all the dark energy that emitted from the ponies, six sins were born, manifested inside of the most devilish and powerful ponies of this time.
And these six ponies, these six sins, only led to one destination…”

Bleach and Spike listened keen-eared while they finished the last preparations. Twilight then took the picnic basket with her magic and looked firm into her lover´s and the dragon´s eyes for the last word:
“Destruction!”
Both gulped.
“But…that´s very long ago, right?” Spike asked timid. “That won´t happen again, won´t it? I mean…the six sins were captured inside this book and haven´t their full power…”
“Though, the threat is there, Spike. Somepony had tried to free them and to repeat the happenings of the past, that´s at least what it looks like…” the Auraknight explained. “And they may aren´t at their full power, but they are still strong, Twi and I can tell you.” He looked back at Twilight. “But now: What are these six sins? We only know three, after all…”

And Twilight began to count, reciting the book´s words:

“The first was lust, the untamed urge to mate.
The second was gluttony, pure debauchery.
The third was greed, the compulsion to own and control everything.

This trio found the basic sins and was perfected by two other sins:

The fourth was violence, the wish to eliminate every rival; every other pony that dared or may one day could dare to court the same things one possessed.
The fifth perfected the fourth. That was the blackest treachery and ambush. The plan to not only eliminate one´s rivals but also the own brother, sister, mother, father, foal, brother-in-arms and so on.

And they all gathered under the banner of the sixth, the one that would cover the world with fire and sear all life on it: pure unbridled bottomless and absolutely mortal hatred.”

There was a deep silence between the three until finally Spike broke it.
“That sounds…like the most awful nightmare one could ever have!”
Twilight only nodded. “It must have been a horrible time! The book is talking about blazing skies, thick black smoke everywhere, coming from burning cottages, burning forests and burning ponies. There were ruins and blood and dead bodies everywhere, the earth brown and dry where once had been luscious green grass…”
“It was hell…” her lover closed and prevented the purple mare from worsening the nightmare the young Spike would have definitely after that lecture.

The baby dragon only shuddered, imagining the scenario.
“Okay, enough of that! Can we please just leave for our picnic now? And please can you leave that cursed book here?”

Twilight sighed.
“Okay, I won´t take it along.” she calmed the dragon and looked at Bleach. “Can you hide it where nopony can find it?”

He only nodded, took the book from the table and took it upstairs to hide it in their bedroom.

And after he came back, Twilight placed her number one assistant on her back and together they left the library to explore the town…

______________________________________________________________________

“Serious now, sunshine: Was it truly necessary to wear your surcoat? Some are already starring at you!”

Bleach looked around. In fact some small groups of ponies watched him from the distance and whispered with one another. Well, when do you ever see a stallion with a long mane and a surcoat which in addition had an embroidered golden sign of Celestia´s sun-cutie mark at the height of the heart? And besides: They were new in this town. And it was by a long shot not as huge as Canterlot, so most of the ponies here surely knew each other.

Together the trio walked along the roads of Ponyville. It seemed like a peaceful place to live, the sun was shining down on them and the streets were busy but not too overcrowded like the Canterlot City Center on the weekend before Hearts Warming Eve. Everywhere along the town they saw different small shops like a strange ‘Quills and Sofas’-store, a shop that definitely would be going out of quills during Twilight´s stay…well, they still could sell sofas!
They also found a florist´s, which only remembered them at their gone florist-friend so they passed by and tried to ignore it.

“Are you jealous?” Bleach teased her then in response, noticing from the corner of his eye the three florists looking after him and whispering.
“Of course not!” Twilight huffed. “It´s just…What if somepony is recognizing you! What if that murder has an accomplice here in Ponyville…or followed us!”
“And you think a pony with a cutie mark of two daggers would attract less attention?” he hit back.
Twilight only huffed again. “At least you left your blades at the library!”
“Yeah…” he just meant, feeling the weight of the two holsters in his sleeves.
“You still have your surrogate daggers with you, right?” she read his thoughts.
“He…you´ve got me…”
“UGH! Aren´t you a little bit overprotective?”
“Over…What? You know there´s still a murder out there chasing us, do you? And I am on duty after all!”
“I am with Bleach!” Spike suddenly interposed from Twilight´s back. “I feel safer this way. And…” he grinned and held up one of his claws into Bleach´s direction “…we guys have to keep together, right?”
“Right!” the stallion grinned and high-hoofed with the baby dragon.
Twilight only moaned one more time and remained silent.

They kept walking along the street, past a small school from which at the moment a small amount of fillies and colts bolted out. Smiling the pair watched the foals heading for their homes and was remembered at their own school days as little foals.
After a few more meters, the road suddenly opened in a wide square. Everywhere, ponies were busily doing their shopping, buying fruits and vegetables and sundry other stuff. Right next to the town square was the big town hall.
But instead of the impressive architecture of the building, the scent of all the different treats caught the attention of the trio´s male parts and a low rumbling emitted from their stomachs.

“Mmmh…Time for some lunch, if you ask me…” Spike meant.
“Yeah…Maybe some apple fritters…” Bleach agreed.
Twilight only rolled her eyes and stepped next to him. “Hey, don´t forget our picnic!” she meant and tapped the basket on his back. “You should watch your dietary habits. You´re getting fat!” and gave him a slight slap on his tummy to emphasize her words.
“I´m not getting fat! I´m just…well-built!”
“Whatever you say, roly-poly…” she quipped sassy.
“Okay, that makes a twenty-four-hours-kiss-prohibition!”
“Hey, that´s not fair…” the mare complained whilst Spike couldn´t help himself but roll his eyes about the duo´s lovey-dovey.
“You brought it all on yourself, naughty filly!”

The small dragon in the meantime got off of Twilight´s back and stole himself away with two of her bits to the nearest booth, filled with lots of baked goods made of apples. An orange mare with a blonde mane and tail, tied up with two red ribbons, and a stepson on her head appeared to be its owner. Three apples as her cutie mark surely proved that.
“Hello!” he greeted her and looked over her goods.
“Howdy lil´ fella!” she greeted back with a smile and a strong accent. “What can Ah do fer you?”
“One caramel apple, please!” he ordered.
“A caramel apple, at once…makes two bits.”
Spike took the apple she gave him and handed her the two bits.

“Y´all new in town, right? Ah nev´r saw you an´ your…love birdies ov´r there before…” she stated pointing at the duo still lost in its lovey-dovey and tried to start a conversation with the purple dragon.
He nodded. “Yeah, we moved here last night and are exploring the town at the moment. Oh, my name is Spike, by the way.” he introduced himself and took a first bite of his apple.
“Nice ta meet ya, Spike. Ah´m Applejack.” she tipped her hat. “So…what brought ya to Ponyville an´ where´re ya coming from?” the mare wanted to know.
“Oh, we moved here from Canterlot. We´re living at the Library as long as we stay here.” he swallowed. “Wow, that tastes good!” he meant and took another big bite, almost taking the whole apple in his mouth.
Applejack chuckled. “Thanks! We on Sweet Apple Acres´re producing the best apples´f all Equestria an´-“

“Spi-hike!” Twilight suddenly called for the baby dragon and trotted over to him with Bleach in tow. “Hello, I hope he didn´t bother you…” she then greeted the orange mare.
“Oh no, we´re just chattin´ while you´d been…busy.” Applejack stated politely. “So y´all comin´ from Cant´rlot, huh?”
“Yes, we are.” Twilight nodded smiling. “I am Twilight Sparkle and this is Bleach.”
“Nice to meet you!” he took a short bow. “Mmh, your goods smell quite excellent…”
“Thank ya!” the mare smiled and tipped her hat again. “The name´s Applejack! Glad ta make your acquaintance! We on Sweet Apple Acres produce the best apples´f all Equestria an´re always glad ta welcome new friends ta our family! If y´all need somethin´ made´f apples, just visit our farm!”
“Thank you for this nice offer!” Twilight beamed. “Well…actually we really need something made of apples right now: One portion of your apple fritters and one apple turnover, please!”

______________________________________________________________________

On the other side of the marketplace, the scenes in front of Applejack´s booth didn´t stay unrecognized. Two ponies were standing in the crowd, the eyes of one of them curious fixated at the strange trio.

The other seemed bored.
“Okay, we´re watching them for five minutes now! Can we go?” the pony complained.
“Of course not, silly!” the other snickered. “Do you even know who these ponies are?”
“Uhm…Strangers?” the first pony meant unimpressed.
“Exactly!” its companion meant with narrowed eyes and a sinister grin. “That means they hadn´t been here before! And you know what that means!”
“Oh no, please-“
“TO THE LIBRARY!”

And with a surprised yelp the other pony was dragged along with the excited one…

______________________________________________________________________

Their tummies refilled, the trio continued its way through the city´s streets. They chatted about various things, laughed and simply enjoyed the day together. It was somehow like Bleach had told Twilight
It was just a day back to normality.
But still she mentally just wanted to head back to the library and read the book…

On their way they surprisingly met their old classmate Lyra and her friend Bon-Bon.
She greeted them friendly and they chatted about the time when they were back at school and what had happened since the mint green mare had left Celestia´s School to study playing the lyre at Canterlot´s School for Philharmonics and how she had come to Ponyville and met her roommate Bon-Bon during a small gig at a local restaurant and so on. She also meant with a giggle, that it wasn´t a surprise to her to see Twilight and Bleach together.
They just chuckled and confirmed her thoughts with a short kiss.
After a sweet “Dawww!” she welcomed them in Ponyville, they said their goodbyes and Lyra left with the cream-colored mare.

“And what was that with your twenty-four-hours-kiss-prohibition?” Spike then cooked his brow at Bleach.
“Well…I think I´ll connive it this one time. I declare the prohibition official as nullified!” he meant smiling and sealed it with a quick peck on Twilight´s cheek.
“Indulgent and gentlecoltly as ever!” Twilight chuckled.
Her lover beamed, chin up and chest out. “Typical chivalrous behavior of an Auraknight! We are sort of traditionalists after all! It comes all with the package!”
Twilight´s answer was a mischievous grin and narrowed eyes. “Aren´t you getting there a little bit arroga-“
“STOOOOOOOOP!”

Both suddenly froze in their tracks.
In front of them was a yellow pegasus-mare with a long waving pink mane and tail kneeling down to Twilight´s hooves.
“It´s okay. She won´t do you any harm…” she then meant and they noticed a small ant crawling from under Twilight´s hoof, heading for a small meadow on the street´s other side. “Good little ant! Go back to your family! They´re surely missing you…” the pegasus meant with a sweet soft voice and watched the ant vanishing in the meadow.

“Phew, I´m glad you saw that! I nearly had squashed that poor little ant.”
The mare with the three butterflies on her flank startled by Twilight´s words and suddenly recognized that they were still there and covered one of her eyes shyly with her mane.
A somehow awkward silence remained.
“Sooo…You like animals?” Twilight tried to start a conversation but the mare just pawed the ground and gave a nearly inaudible “U-hu…”
“Well, my name is Twilight and this is Bleach.” she introduced herself and her lover, changing her tactic. “What is your name?”
“Uhm…Uh…My name is Fl…er…y…” she muttered.
“I´m sorry, what was it? I didn´t catch it.” Bleach asked friendly.
“Uhm…I said my name is Fluttershy…” she repeated even more inaudible than before.
Twilight looked at her lover with an asking look but he shook only his head. “I´m sorry, but we didn´t quite get it. What was your name?”
The following answer was just some incomprehensible squeak.

After another awkward silence, the duo decided to leave the mare since she seemed too intimidated by their presence.
“Well, it was nice to meet you. Maybe we meet again some time. Soo…Goodbye!”
And so, they trotted past the shy pegasus.
“Gesh, can we get to the park now? I feel tired!” Spike then meant from Twilight´s back.
“You are sitting on my back since we left the library and you tell me YOU are TIRED?” the purple mare hit back.
He already wanted to counter that statement with a sassy comment, but in that moment, like a switch in her head had been clicked, the yellow mare became big shining eyes and with an excited gasp she turned from introverted to extroverted in a split second.

“Ou, a BABY DRAGON!”
Surprised by this outburst, Twilight turned around to the mare but was kicked aside by her in the next moment. With a complaining groan she landed on the ground whilst the yellow pegasus caught Spike mid-air. With a stifled chuckle, Bleach helped his love back to her hooves. That mare seemed to be stronger than she looked like.
“I´ve never seen a baby dragon before! Ou, he´s sooo cute!” she meant with big sparkling eyes. “And he talks! I didn't know dragons could talk. That's just so incredibly wonderful I…I just don't even know what to say!”
“Yeah…” the duo just meant, unsure what to say to the sudden change in behavior while Spike visibly enjoyed the mare´s attention.
“What is your name, little dragon.” she asked.
“I am Spike.”
“Hi Spike, I am Fluttershy and-“
In that moment, a magenta veil surrounded the young dragon and positioned him back on Twilight´s back.

“I am truly sorry, but we want to get to the park for our picnic and we won´t come too late, so we have to get going…” Twilight excused them, turned around and started trotting away, Bleach simply joining and trotting next to her.
But Fluttershy followed right behind her. “Wait! I want to know so much about him!” she stated and looked at the dragon on Twilight´s back.
“What do you want to know?” he asked.
“Absolutely everything!”
Twilight only sighed.

“Hey!” a voice meant next to her and she looked up at Bleach. “Grant him that little bit of attention!”
“It´s not because of him!” Twilight huffed whilst Spike was lost in his life story on her back. “We are losing time! I should´ve already finished half of the book and I´m still stuck at its first chapter because of your picnic-idea!”
“Would you please stop thinking about that damned book? This day is destined for normalcy! Just easing down the happenings and revelations of the last week. Even your brain needs a break from that! The alicorns are sealed inside the book and won´t escape and I hid it where nopony would find it at one go, okay?”
“But…But…”
“Promise me! No more mentions of the book for the rest of the day! Today, we are just lazy and enjoy the town, its ponies and our picnic!”
She sighed resigning. “Okay…”
“Deal?” he probed.
Rolling her eyes, she leaned over and kissed him.
“Deal!”

And so they trotted on, Spike telling his story to Fluttershy all the way to the park…

______________________________________________________________________

“Okay…dead end. They locked the door, what a surprise! Enough, I´m outta here!”

The two ponies stood in front of the closed library-tree with no hint how to get in, much to the satisfaction of one of the duo. Spinning on its hooves, it already wanted to go.
“Hey, wait! Our mission isn´t over yet!” the other meant and grabbed its companion at its shoulders, pulling it back.
“What now?” it asked impatient.
“Now? Now it´s time for my super-duper-infiltrate-like-James-Colt-skills!
“Your what-now?” the other pony furrowed confused and cocked one of its eyebrows.
“Just stay there and wait!”
Rolling its eyes, it did so, leaning against the closed door and watching its companion surrounding the tree, searching for a gap or something to get in. One time…two times…it yawned…

…and in that moment, the door opened and with a surprised yelp, it fell inside, landing on its tummy and looking up with a groan to its wide smiling fellow. “See?”
“But…How did you…Where…What…Ugh, never mind…”

______________________________________________________________________

“Phew, I can´t believe we finally got rid of her!” Twilight meant after Fluttershy had left them to get back to her cottage and feed the animals she told she took care of.
Spike and also Bleach frowned at her while they lay down on the big red-white picnic rug.
“Twilight, since when are you so rude?” her lover asked slightly shocked about her rough words.
Her answer was a sigh. “I´m sorry. It´s just…She reminded me a bit of…you know…”
Bleach nodded understanding. He had felt it for himself, her kindness and innocent acting. But that Fluttershy was way too, well, shy. Silverleaf on the contrary had been a ball of energy, always vigorous and filled with life. The resemblance of the two was faint.
Faint enough for Twilight, though.

“So what do you think about this place so far?” he kindly changed the topic and looked around.
They were in the middle of a park near the town´s edge. Flower-bedecked meadows sprawled between the hoofways and a gazebo invited young couples to spend some romantic hours alone in the dusk. The stallion took an inner note to do that with his love if time permits.
All around them, he could watch other ponies having a walk or picnicking or just resting on a bench. It was just like the Canterlot City Park, but way calmer with its blue brooklet and small bridges that led over it.
It was the perfect place for them to relax, get back their strengths and to ease down things.

“It´s nice, but it isn´t our park.” Twilight stated while Spike unpacked the treats they had prepared for their picnic, including some lazurites for the small dragon.
“It isn´t as big, that´s right.”
“That´s not what I meant. It´s…quieter.”
“And that is so bad?” Spike intervened questioning. “Regarding that your favorite occupation is reading books, this should be perfect for you!”
She sighs. “It´s also lacking an affinity to me. It´s just…it´s not the same park where we always had so much fun, where we had forged our plans and pranks…or where I had kissed your cheek the first time.” She looked deep into her lover´s eyes. “And the same holds true for this whole city.”
Bleach smiled soft in response. “Finally we get the gist of why you didn´t want to explore the town. It has no meaning for you, because we are only here for a temporary period. It´s just a job you want to get over with. And you don´t want anything to remind you at that, because everything is connected to one unpleasant memory - her demise. It´s the only affinity you have to this town: You were sent here because somepony killed our friend.”

She looked to the ground and bit her lower lip. He was right.
All this only happened because of Silverleaf´s murder. Every thought about the town and its citizen soon or later led her back to her deceased friend. She was caught in a circle, a circle of nostalgia and grief.
“How? How do you manage it?” she gulped back her sob.
“What?”
“HER DEATH!” she snapped and Spike recoiled at its suddenness. Some ponies turned around to them with surprised and curious looks. “How can you talk about it so easily? How can you say her name with no effort and without struggling to hold back your tears? I have to struggle to not lose myself in my nostalgic memories every five minutes and you just live your life as if nothing had happened! Did she mean so little to you that you can do so?”

That hurt.
It pierced his heart, made it bleed.
And Twilight regretted her words as soon as the first tears appeared in her love´s eyes and he covered them with his mane.

“Oh my…Bleach, I…I´m sorry, I…I-“
He stomped with his fore hoof and cut her short.
“How DARE you!” he sobbed more then he shouted it. “All the time, I try to encourage you, to lift your spirits, to not let you lose yourself in a lake of depression! To protect you from a mistake I made years ago! And THAT is your way to give thanks to me? THAT´S your way to show me your love? Aspersions and prejudicing?”
“I…I…”
“Do you really think her death means nothing to me? The death of one of my best friends? Do really think I wouldn´t miss her too? It is as painful for me to think about her as for you, but…I learned to cope with it! Years ago, you remember? You are oh-so well-read and still you are so myopic…” he fixated his angry eyes on her. “I am deeply disappointed with you!”
Twilight couldn´t hold his gaze. It was the first time in her life she saw her friend like this.
The first time his dark blue eyes denied her access to his soul.
“I…I am sorry, Bleach…” she whispered. “I am just so stressed lastly… I didn´t realize what I was saying. It…it just burst out of me! I think you were right. This all is just too much for me…I am truly, deeply sorry…”
He only huffed, but his anger was already ebbing away. “You know, I once before lost a pony that was very close to me…”
“Yeah, I remember…”
“Back then, I had been a wreck, you sure remember too. It was very hard for me to cope with her death…after I first couldn´t cope with it at all. It took me one year, one attempted suicide and the help of all my friends to realize something: If you´re caught in a circle of old painful memories, you have to break free and look forward! You have to accept that you can´t change your past! But you can change your future. You can fill it with happy memories, memories you can look at without starting to cry. And soon, you realize that these new memories work like a catalyst. You may think back at the horrible things of your past sometimes, but your mind will always lead you to the happy events that followed after. You just have to find this catalyst.”
His voice got calmer with time. He took deep breaths to work himself off. Twilight was in a difficult situation, coping with her very first death of a loved pony. He shouldn´t have gone wild like this, though it was quite reasonable.

“And…what are these ‘catalysts’ of yours?” Twilight then asked hesitant after a short silence.
Now, her lover chuckled and wiped away the remains of his tears and sent his mane back in its usual place with a flick of his head.
“Well, they are both very similar. They both involve one and the same pony and one and the same activity.” he hinted.
“Now I am really curious!” Twilight meant whilst Spike, who had watched the duo´s sudden explosive outbursts silently from behind their picnic basket, took a deep breath of relief that the storm was gone.
“Well…the first contains an unwrapped Hearts Warming Eve gift, a certain young purple filly hugging me tight and a sprig of mistletoe…”
Named purple ‘filly’ smiled and a hint of red spread across her cheeks. Yes, she remembered that special indeed Hearts Warming Eve.
“…and the second, the one for Silverleaf, contains a guest room at the palace, the same purple ‘filly’ and her amazing beauty.” He grinned. “And what the named activity was, you surely can guess…”
Her answer was very simple. She instantly leaned forward, closed her eyes and pressed her lips on his with a wide smile.

“Phew…Does that mean we can finally start to eat now?” their small purple watcher asked impatiently and nonchalant during the couple´s kissing.
Twilight and Bleach parted their lips, ending up in a tender hug and looking deeply into their eyes. There it finally was again, the spark in his eyes, the reflection of his soul!
“If you want, you can start to eat, Spike…” Twilight then meant. “…and if you don´t mind, Bleachie…”
“I´ll never get rid of this name, huh?”
“…Nope! And if you don´t mind, I would like to fill my brain with some happy memories at this day!”
“That´s the right way!” he meant smiling. “And what do you have in mind?”
“Well, I was thinking about a small game…” she hinted.
“And which game? Chess?” he guessed frivolous.
“Not quite…” she replied with a smirk and pecked his lips. “Tag! You´re it!”
And so, they chased each other laughing across the meadow, mostly not so hard trying to not get tagged.

Gesh, this love-thing and its mood changes are really starting to creep me out… were the final thoughts of a certain small dragon…

______________________________________________________________________

“Look! That cloud looks like a star!”
“That one looks like a big bowl filled with thousands of the finest diamonds!”
“And this one looks like a book!”
“Uhm, sweetheart, that´s a rectangle…”
“No, it´s a book! ‘The Academic Study of Amniomorphic Spells’, to be excact!”
“Yeah, sure! Only thinking about this stupid tome gives me headaches…primary because you once connected it so smoothly with my head!”
“Hihi, I remember. We played chess and I told Silv that it´s a game of intelligence and you, bold as you are, said that that may was lacking me because I couldn´t win against you one single time. And the book was my revenge!”
“And today, I´m losing every match. That book caused a permanent damage and I didn´t arraign it. I am a true friend!”
“Yeah, permanent damage, sure! I believe every single word!”

Snickering, the trio lay on the rug and continued telling tales from their past adventures together, from how they met first, how they had played in the park together every day possible to their fights against Shadow Star, their former class mate, obsessed with the idea of winning Twilight´s heart by trying to sweep Bleach out of his way.
Spike just listened keen-eared to the tales written while he was raised in Celestia´s custody, of course often visited by a much smaller Twilight during her personal lessons. With time, she became like a big sister to him and when she finally got her own chamber at the school, he additionally became her official personal assistant.

“You know…” Twilight then started whilst rising back to her hooves and starting to pack up their picnic-things, shortly followed by her love and the purple dragon. “…in the end, I think he was truly in love with me.”
“What makes you believe that? I mean, where do you know that he wasn´t just after your lips and nothing else.” the white stallion asked curious.
“I could feel it…when he confessed it to me.”
Bleach cooked his left eyebrow. “He confessed his love to you?”
Twilight nodded, levitated their picnic basket onto her lover´s and Spike onto her back and slowly began to trot out of the park, heading home for the library. “I never told a pony about it. It happened at our first Hearts and Hooves Day at the school, a few days after you received your cutie mark and became an Auraknight-trainee. You and Silverleaf had left the town with your parents to visit your grandparents whilst I was left alone. I was out at the park to spend the time, but without my friends it wasn´t very funny.
Then Shadow appeared.
He cheered me up and we spent the afternoon together, going for an ice cream and took a small walk through the streets and the park, chatting. I really enjoyed that afternoon and had very much fun.
We ended up at a beautiful clearing near by the cliffs watching the sunset.
And then, all of a sudden, he looked deep into my eyes, told me that he loved me and asked if I wanted to be his special somepony.
First I was shocked, less because of the confession itself than its suddenness. I mean, I never had something to do with him before. He was just a class mate. And then, he suddenly told me he would love me! Of course, we had spent a beautiful day together, but…”
“…you rebuffed him?”
She sighed sadly. “I broke his heart.
He treated me like a queen that day and what did I do? I told him I´d feel flattered, but I would already love another pony: you. And after I couldn´t tell him, why exactly I loved you, I could see the profound disappointment in his eyes. I couldn´t see it, but I know he was crying when he left after that.
I felt really bad the next week every time I saw him at school.
I rejected him and crushed his heart just because I didn´t know him! But everything seemed just so complicated! On the one hoof, there had been the feelings I had for you since our first day together, feelings I didn´t even know if they were mutual! Hay, I even wasn´t sure if what I was feeling was really love! And on the other hoof, there had been Shadow with his tender care for me! I…I just followed my heart and that chose you…”
It wasn´t the whole truth, but it contained the majority of important details. Bleach didn´t have to know everything, least of all about the fact that Shadow simply had pulled her into a kiss she never had wanted. There was no use in making Bleach jealous about a dead pony...
“And that was the right thing, Twily! And I don´t say it because it chose me, but I believe in such situations, you always have to hear at your heart. It shows you the right way, even if it means to disappoint somepony. And after all, you had just been a little filly back then! You had been confused and everything was new for you. You had to make a decision. And that decision may was a wrong one, but you learned from it! Nopony can blame you for that! If I had been in your place I wouldn´t have known what to do, too.”
But Twilight barely heard his words.
Her head sunk and her ears flipped down, a dejected look on her face. “I think he never forgave me...I feel so guilty for what happened to him…what he became…He may never would´ve become evil when I just had been more intelligent…if I would have given him a chance…”

They walked in silence for a few moments, Bleach not exactly knowing what to say. He never knew that the young mare he loved was filled with so much remorse. She truly believed that everything that happened to Shadow was her fault…
“But remember what happened the day I got my cutie mark! That dark mare that possessed your brother! That was before Hearts and Hooves Day, which means he already was possessed by these dark creatures, so maybe everything was just simulated!”
“No, Bleach.” Twilight argued firm. “Even if he truly was already possessed by these dark creatures that day, what I saw in the end, was his true unadulterated nature! I saw it in his eyes, the sadness and the disappointment…maybe if had agreed in being his special somepony, the darkness inside him would´ve vanished…”
“We will never know…” her lover concluded finally with a comforting nuzzle.

And while they were walking silently along the streets of Ponyville after that, they suddenly heard a loud, earsplitting shriek…

______________________________________________________________________

“What the hay was THAT!” the trio asked itself, perking up their ears and looking around.
There it was again, a scream as if somepony had been set afire and suffering torments of hell!
“Over there!” Bleach shouted and pointed at a round impressive building that stood out of the other houses of Ponyville with its, well, unique style, the blue-white walls the orange curtains and purple-pink-checkered roofs.

At a rapid gallop they approached the building and burst open the door, searching for the source of the agonized screams. The first thing they saw were the countless clothes hangers with lots of colorful dresses from flouncy and diamonded to gracious and elegant to plain and simple but still dainty.
And in the middle of all, there was the screams´ source - a white-coated unicorn mare with a graceful curling purple mane and tail.
“WHY ME-HE-HE! WHY, WHY!” she sobbed. “Of all the worst things that could happen this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!” Her horn aglow, she levitated over a red sofa and lay down on it, crying overdramatically.

“Uhm…What happened to you?” Twilight asked a little bit awkwardly. They had expected a pony suffering the worst pain in the world. She even expected for a moment to find the murder here!
“Oh, its sooo awful horrible! I was just working at a new creation for a highly respected customer from Canterlot High Society and not meant any harm, when I suddenly noticed I totally forgot to order the fabric for the hat! Now I may will be tardy and have to allow her discount and…and…” She suddenly stopped crying and noticed her three customers, looking them over with curious eyes. “Who are you?”

They just exchanged a confused glance because of the mare´s strange behavior. In that moment, they realized that there had never been a real thread, only an enormous drama queen of a pony.
“Uhm…well, these are Bleach, Spike-”
“Hello…” the purple dragon greeted her with a suddenly very dreamy voice to which Twilight only cooked an eyebrow.
“-and I am Twilight. We moved here from Canterlot last night and thought you were going to d-"
“CANTERLOT?” the white mare with the three diamonds at her flank suddenly gasped excited. “Ou, I am envious! The glamour, the sophistication! I have always dreamed of living there! I am Rarity and let me guess…” she inspected the two dumbfounded ponies in front of her over with a short professional look and then pointed at Twilight “…you are searching for a new outfit and you…” her hoof wandered to Bleach “…want to give that old shabby surcoat a makeover!”
“Uh…”
“Ou, of course! And a clip! Really, darling, I know that long black mane become you, but a handsome gentlecolt like you shouldn´t wear his mane longer than to his shoulders! But don´t worry, Rarity will fix this!”
“WHAT?” the Auraknight gasped and took two steps back, hiding his mane behind his back as effectively as possible. There was no way he would let that crazy mare cut his hairs! They are a memorial to his mother!
“Uhm, hello? Excuse me please, but-“ Twilight spoke up annoyed but was interrupted by Rarity in the next moment.
“Oh, I know what you´re thinking but please don´t mind my diction, darling! There´s no need for jealousy! You have to be no professional to see that you two are a couple, a very lovely one indeed!” she meant with a charming smile. “So…shall we begin? You can inspect my dresses while I will make your handsome sweetheart even more handsome. And after that, I´ll revamp that surcoat. And don´t worry, because you are new customers I´ll allow you a bounteous discount!”

“Well…” Twilight then thought “…that doesn´t sound so bad.”
“Wait, WHAT!?” Bleach shouted, shocked about his love´s decision. “I will NEVER divest myself of my hairs! Nononononono, they are a commemoration to my mother!”
But Twilight only narrowed her eyes. “Didn´t you say you have to move on from your past? It´s time for you to adhere to your own words!”
“No! Have your way with me, dye my coat bilious green, gouge my eyes out, neuter me but don´t do my mane a mischief!” he panicked.
“Bleach, you are ridiculous! You act like a young foal!”
“Then I am a young foal! If it keeps my mane safe…”
“UGH…” she shook her head and sat down in front of him, locking his eyes with hers. Spike and Rarity in the meantime only watched the somehow awkward scene in front of them with strange curiosity.
“…listen to me. And listen carefully:
If you´re caught in a circle of old painful memories, you have to break free from them and look forward! You have to accept that you can´t change your past! But you can change your future!
Do you remember these words? You told them to me only a few hours ago.”
“And what do they have to do with the fact that you want to destroy my memorial to my mother?” he asked stubborn.
“Very much, don´t you see it? You may did break out of your depression and you may found a catalyst to make the memories at your mother less painful. But you still didn´t break free from your memories! You still can´t accept that you can´t change your past!”
“Hey, that´s a cruel lie! I accepted my past and I broke free from my old memories! My mane has nothing to do with that!” he meant annoyed…and face-hoofed himself mentally when he saw Twilight´s sly smirk. “Uh-oh…”
“Gotcha!”
“But…But…Grr, okay! You won…” he groaned and got back to his hooves, trotting reluctant towards Rarity.
“Okay, I´ll do it…” he then announced.
“Then please follow me.” the fashionista commanded politely. “And don´t you worry, Miss Twilight. You´ll get him back in a minute!”
And with that, she led the stallion through the room to a backdoor and left the purple mare and dragon alone.

“Isn´t she simply wonderful?” Spike next to Twilight then meant with the same dreamy tone as before and she snickered.
“Spike, is it may possible that you´ve fallen in love?”
“What?” he asked visibly shocked. Did he really fell for a thing he thought he would be immune to? “Never! I mean, no! Or yes, maybe…Ugh, I don´t know…”

______________________________________________________________________

“Now, please sit down over there…”

Rarity had guided the nervous Auraknight into some kind of dressing room. There were a few dresses on mannequins, a screen, a hair-dryer, a door which surely led to a small bathroom with a shower and a dresser with a mirror. The latter was exactly where she wanted him to sit down in front of.
He did so and looked himself over in the mirror, inspected his long hairs which actually reached down to the lower end of the midsection of his tummy, just as his mother had worn them. Then he focused his shoulders, the point where they are going to be shortened to.
Nervously he watched the mare levitating several things like scissors, a comb, a brush and a spray bottle out of the dresser.

“Okay…And now just trust me and relax…” she soothed him while she sprinkled his mane with water from the bottle to keep his mane straight and to improve its combability. It felt a little bit cold, but not unpleasant. He still felt a little bit unsure about the whole thing when she brushed his mane straight, took the comb and the scissors and started cutting his mane. He winced mentally when he noticed the first few parts of his mane soaring down on the ground beneath, though she was only trimming at the moment.
“So…” Rarity then tried to start a little small talk “…what is it with you and your mane? You seem to cling tight on to it.”
“Yes…” he sighed. “…I do. It always was some kind of memorial to my mother. She…She deceased about ten years ago because of a double pneumonia and always wore her mane like I am wearing it today.”
“You must´ve loved her very much.” the fashionista stated while she systematically trimmed his mane, making it shorter with every scissors´ cut.
“I did. When she died, my whole world did. I even attempted to kill myself, but luckily my friends had rescued me in time and helped me to get out of my depression.”
“And your sweetheart? Was she one of your friends back then?”
“Yes. She was the pony that pulled me out of my depression. Without her help and the help of another good friend, I surely would have tried to kill myself until I would have succeeded. Twilight and I met at our first day at school. And we both loved each other from the very beginning.”
“Oh, love at first sight! That´s so romantic!” Rarity meant with another cut, the sound of the scissors and the small talk soothing the stallion´s mind and distracting him from the fact that his mane was now only long enough to reach down to the midsection of his chest.
“Yeah…”Bleach chuckled “…though we needed a very long time to become a real couple.”
“How long?”
“Last Saturday. Nearly twelve years after we first met.”
“Oh my, that must be real love if you both could keep up your feelings for such a long time! Others would have given up. I don´t know if I would have been that patient; surely not. But how goes the idiom? Good things come to those who wait.”
Bleach just gave a nod between two cuts and then, the only sounds in the room were the scissors and the breaths of the two ponies for a short while.

“I am wondering all the time…” Rarity then began but seemed unsure to continue while she was occupied with the final cuts on the outline of Bleach´s now shoulder-length mane.
“What?” he asked her to continue.
“Well, I´m wondering what brings an Auraknight on duty and his love to a town like Ponyville.”
He arched both of his brows to that. “You know what I am?” he asked more curious than shocked.
“Of course! These surcoats like yours are only worn by the highest elite of the Royal Guards - the personal life guards of Celestia. As a fashion designer, I get about a lot, especially with the Canterlot High Society. And the Auraknights there always have the reputation of being the most elegant, handsome and chivalrous stallions, or mares as the case may be, of all ponies. Though, most of these ponies never get to know one like I am right now.”
“That´s may because the snootiness of these snobs and our tolerance, chivalry and down-to-earthness don´t fit each other very much…” he meant.
“You´re might right there. Anyway, it´s a great honor to have one of you as my guest, though you may don´t really fall in the public definition…”
“I´m just staying true to myself.” he stated while she was finishing the last cut.

“Okay, done! What do you think about it?” Rarity wanted to know, levitating another mirror behind him to show him the fine, lightly curved and perfectly cut outline of his mane between his shoulders.
“It…looks better than I thought…” he had to admit with a slight smile. “I…like it.”
“I am very glad to hear that!” Rarity beamed and brushed one last time through his mane, searching for the last hairs that may had escaped the scissors. “Though, we aren´t finished yet.
“Not?” Bleach cooked his brow.
“No. I simply can´t let you go like that! Your mane now may has the right length, but now your tail doesn´t fit. I also have to shorten it a few inches...” she meant, silently asking her customer for allowance.

The stallion in front of the mirror took a deep breath and then announced with a beam:
“Do as you think best!”

______________________________________________________________________

It took one and half an hour until the door finally opened again and the sun was setting outside.

And out of the door trotted a wide smiling Bleach, his neatly brushed mane now flowing freely straight till the upper parts of his shoulders and his tail also shortened a few inches to match it to his mane, now only reaching to the middle of his hooves instead of reaching down to nearly touch the floor.
His surcoat was like new! The golden sign of Celestia at the height of his heart shone brighter than ever and added to the golden sign in the middle of the sun´s center was now a sign of his cutie mark, the cross-daggers and the rose. The edges of the surcoat were now also embroidered with the golden yarn.

After so many years, I finally got back the Bleach he once was! Twilight thought happily, greeting him back with a tender hug and a kiss.
“You look pretty! Like the Bleach I got to know twelve years ago.” she beamed and then turned to Rarity which followed the scene with a satisfied look. “Thank you very much!”
“No need to thank me, darling. Did you find something you like?”
“I found quite a few things, but…I think I´ll remit it to later, if you don´t mind.”
“Of course! You´re always welcome.”
“Thank you. What do we owe you?”

“Nothing.” was the smiled answer…

Ch.1 - The Beginning - Pt.1 - A Nightmare´s Day

Chapter 1 – The Beginning

Part 1 – A Nightmare´s Day

“NOOOOOOOOOO!”

The door to the adjacent room opened and a very concerned little dragon entered her chamber.
“Twilight? Is everything all right?” the purple dragon asked worried and turned the lights on. What his eyes saw, made him even more worried!
The purple unicorn sat up straight in her bed, as pale as death, breathing hardly. Her whole body trembled with fear, she sweated bullets, streams of tears ran down her cheeks and she had an absent look. Spike had never seen his friend like…well…like this!
“Wow…Twilight, what happened to you?” He got no answer. She even seemed not to notice him.
“Hey Twilight!” he said louder now, but he still got no answer. That does it! he thought and got closer to her. He jumped on her bed, grabbed her shoulders and shook her up. “HEY! WAKE UP!”
Now, there was a reaction. She raised her head and seemed to return to reality.
Her purple eyes focused on the dragon in front of her.

“Spike?” she asked confused and he sighed in relief. “What…what are you doing here?”
“What I’m doing here? You screamed as you´re going to die and when I entered your chamber, you looked like you met death in person and didn´t even notice me! And you ask me what I´m doing here?”
“Oh…” the purple unicorn said absent-minded, tried to dry her tears and looked at the clock. It was half past two…A.M., of course… “I´m sorry.” she apologized. “I…It was just a nightmare...nothing else.” She tried a smile and failed. The dark shadow-alicorns and the way they had tortured her had been a harrowing experience! Everything had felt so…real!
“Looks like the worst nightmare Nightmare Moon could send to you.” Now she smiled and nodded.
“Yes, indeed. It was horrible.” The dragon jumped down from the bed and Twilight lay down in her bed again. “Good night, Spike.”
The small baby dragon frowned. “Are you sure you won´t talk about your dream? Or at least change your bed clothes? They´re completely wet through with your perspiration.”

Now, the purple unicorn grinned. “That is my typical number one assistant.” she said and got slowly out of her bed. “But now, that you mentioned it…”
“Allow me to do that for you.” he interrupted her. “You can take a short hop into the shower, if you want. I´ll change your bed clothes.”
“Thank you, Spike.” She opened the wardrobe with her magic and levitated one of the towels to her. After that, she walked into the bathroom and closed the door, hopped into the shower and flooded her body with warm water that dispelled the dark thoughts of her nightmare. She sighed in relief.

But there was still no way back to sleep when she lay down in her cozy, now-dry bed. The fear, being haunted again by the dark alicorn-shadows, let her lie awake…

______________________________________________________________________

At an unknown place, an unknown pony was waiting. The silence around it was absolute and the silvery moonlight made its fur sparkling like the star-spattered sky. A fresh midnight-breeze streamed through the opened window next to it and stroke through its mane.
It savored the feeling and took a deep breath of the cool midnight air.

Ten other minutes passed by.

Why does it take you so long?... it thought impatiently. How long could it take you to...Oh, there you are...
Like a thin trail of smoke they entered the room. The pony opened the book lying on a desk in front of it. The smoke poured out over the book and it absorbed them. Then, the unknown pony closed the book and smirked relieved. It could feel their powers streaming through the book under its hooves...but something was wrong!
They were supposed to be very much stronger than before! But they were only a little bit stronger…and injured?
What in the name of the darkest hell happened to you, my dark ones?... the anonymous pony worried and felt them trembling in their rage inside the book.
Which power was able to defend itself against them? And, in addition, which power was able to injure them?
The pony put the book back into its saddlebag and left its seat.

Now the unknown was inquisitive.
Theoretically, there were no powers in the world that were strong enough to stand against them. No powers excepting…it shook its head. That was ridiculous! Or, maybe, it was simply rough luck that their victim of all ponies was one of the few that was able to resist them and, in the worst case, to destroy them and ruin its plans!

I have to check this…most urgently! were the ponies last thoughts, before it entered its chamber unrecognized…

______________________________________________________________________

Princess Celestia´s School for gifted Unicorns was a very huge palatial pile.
Its internal structure was relative simple.
At the first two floors, there were primarily class rooms for theoretical and practical lessons of every description.
On the third and the fourth floor, the library, the canteen, a few lounges and some other public spaces like a small winter garden, an assembly hall and the secretary´s office were located.
At the upper stories were the student´s chambers.
The fifth to the seventh floor were for the mares, the others to the tenth for the stallions.

The chambers for themselves weren´t really big.
There was a small living room with a desk, a wardrobe, two or three smaller cupboards and a bed. One door led to a small storeroom. In Twilights case, this room was converted to Spike´s small personal assistants’ room. In a few cases, like also in Twilight´s, a second door led to a small bathroom. The other students had to use the communal bathrooms and showers on their floors.
But that was no big problem for most of them.

Outside the pile were the big gym and the sports fields. A great delightful garden enclosed the whole building. And if you walked through the garden you would arrive at the Canterlot City Center with its countless stores and impressive buildings.

But now, before everypony of you looses itself in the great shopping area there, let´s go back to the school´s library.
There, a few ponies were busily engaged in some work, having a profound and amicable discussion…

“Are you KIDDING ME?” a snow-white unicorn-stallion shouted out, levitating a few books, he found in a great cardboard box, in front of him.
“What is it now?” a bugged brown mare asked back, sighing.
“You told me of an ambitious exhibition of books, called ‘Fables and Dreams’! And that are your sophisticated books?" The sarcasm in his voice was unmistakable.
"‘The Beauty and the Manticore’? ‘Ariel, the Maremaid’? ‘My little Bunny’? That are all children’s books!”
“Well, seems that you found the books fitting to your level.” another unicorn-stallion smirked sassy while he was occupied at one of the countless bookcases around them. Shortly after his comment his magical horn glowed and he caught the book, the white stallion threw at him.
“You´re way too predictable...” he commented and his grin got even wider. But then, another book hit him and with a groan he felled to ground. The brown mare only shook her head.
“Ouch! Hey, that hurts, you…”
“Colts!” another unicorn-mare sighed in the background. “Can´t you just do your work for five minutes without having a real go at each other?”
“But that are children´s books, Silverleaf!”

Shaking her head, the mare called ‘Silverleaf’ trotted over to them, a basket with lots of gentian blue and flame red flowers in her mouth. She was a silvery-coated mare with a neat light green and white mane. Apposite to her name she wore a silver barrette formed like a leaf.
“Well, of course they are! It is also an exhibition for families! There have to be some children´s books, silly filly!” she hit back.
“I know, but….” he explained sighing, ignoring her last word “...after I agreed helping with the preparations for this exhibition I thought, I would find some books that are more worth to read! Books of bygone eras! Books of unknown legends and sagas! And, maybe, some books with interesting historical facts.”
“Well, if you came over here you would find a plentiful choice of this kind of books.” the other light gray stallion said. “But, I guess, you´re way to busy with your page-turners over there.” he bantered.
“LUCIEN!”
“Yes, Bleach?...” Lucien asked innocent as a lamb. Bleach growled.
“Calm down! Just ignore him!” Silverleaf tried to placate him.

Bleach hated the light gray-coated and dark gray-maned stallion with his annoying nature.
He was always maligning other students, sassy, provocative and also always thinking, he´s the best of all! Granted, he was one of the best elementalists at school. His cutie-mark, a sun consisting of lightning, encircling a water drop that encloses a small flame, proved it. But it was no reason for behaving like that.
First, he thought he just would be jealous, because he was also chasing after Twilight. But, in marked contrast to Bleach, he was just a player. For Lucien, the purple unicorn was but one of many.
Thinking about her…

“By the way, had anypony seen Twilight during the day?” he asked while placing a book on one of the countless book-rests.
“Not I.” Silverleaf answered honestly, decorating the desks and bookcases with her flowers.
“Me neither.” Lucien replied.
“Neither have I.” the brown mare answered. She kept out of the youth’s affair all the time.
Mrs. Bookheart, the librarian, was a calm soul like Silverleaf, but she wasn´t as assertive as her. So she was thankful to have her around.
“Don´t you think it´s strange?” Bleach questioned.
“Why?” the silver-colored mare asked.
“Because she wasn´t here yet!”
“I think you forgot that she´s not exempted from lessons like us, remember? If I hadn´t accept to help with the exhibition, I also wouldn´t be here now. But I did, because one of us has to keep a wary eye on both of you!” she explained with a side glance to Lucien. ”And it´s a great chance for me to deck the Library with some flowers!” she added and smiled.
That was Silverleaf live!
If she was able to deck a room with her floral arrangements, she wouldn´t miss the chance to do it. She was tailor-made for a tradeshow florist! It´s not for nothing, that her cutie-mark was a delightful flower arrangement.
“Well, I only came here to escape the odd lessons…” Lucien said.
“But, in a way, he´s right.” Mrs. Bookheart interposed. “Normally, she´s coming here after breakfast every day.”
“What if something happened to her? Maybe she is ill. Or injured, or…” Bleach worried and was interrupted by Lucien´s loud laugh. “Hey, what´s so funny about that?” Bleach asked angrily.
“You should hear yourself!” he laughed. “Worried sick about a mare, because she´s just once not coming to a place, she normally goes to. You are soooooo pathetic!”

His number is up! he thought and wanted to sock him. But Silverleaf blocked his way.
“No!” she said decisive and added whispering: “You are better than him. Don´t stoop yourself to his level!”
Hardly, he held his horses, looking daggers at the impertinent stallion. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. Finally, he nodded and the silvery mare smiled. “Good. Feel better now?”
“A little…”
“Well, then let´s return to work!” she sang, took her basket and disappeared between the innumerable bookcases…

______________________________________________________________________

It was 1.04 p.m.

At the moment, Twilights class had chemistry at the first floor.
The summer heat outside and the sun, which shone through the big opened windows, made it not easy to concentrate at the lesson. Everypony was sweating.
But though, all eyes were focused on the teacher, Prof. Albert. His lessons were always interesting and fascinating. Today, they learned how to make their own elixir of invisibility.

Only two eyes were closed and their owner was drifting into dreamland for the nth time.

For Twilight it was a very hard day! After her nightmare, there had been no way back to sleep last night. She had bags under her eyes and still had a slight pale face. Three times the teachers had to wake her up since school began this morning. Three times! At least! And per lesson! And this was the first day after summer vacation! This year definitely didn´t start well for the purple mare!
Spike had tried to convince her to excuse herself from lessons, after he saw his exhausted friend this morning. But Twilight, as she was, was way too overambitious and stubborn as a mule! She didn´t want to miss the first school day because of a daffy nightmare! Even if it was a really awful one!
And so, she had ignored Spike´s advice and now was there, her head resting on her forehooves on the desk and her eyes closed…

“…and now, to finish your elixir of invisibility, you take a small drop of the liquefied dragon scales, add it to your distillate aaaaand…” With these words, the beige-coated professor levitated two flacons, filled with a red liquid and a blue one, in front of him and added carefully one single small blue drop to the red one. A short ‘pop’ and the red liquid had a faint orange now. “Done! Now, you have your own elixir of invisibility!”
After that, the students also finished their elixirs. From everywhere, the short ‘pop’ could be heard. Meanwhile, Prof. Albert instructed the students to the mode of action of the elixir and the processes during the chemical reaction.
“…and don´t forget!” he ended “The effect of invisibility lasts only for five minutes! And, as against the last one, this year I don´t want to hear any incidents about stallions found in the mares´ shower…or the other way around…” some students dissolved into giggles. Then Prof. Albert walked to the half-sleeping unicorn and tramped noisy with his hooves on her desk.
“Did you understand that, Miss Sparkle?”

She woke with a start, glancing around through sleepy eyes.
“Wha…What?…Did I...did I miss something?” Some of the other students giggled again.
“Won´t you finish your elixir?” the professor asked sternly.
Twilight hardly found back to reality, her eyes fluttering. She shook her head and hectically levitated her two flacons.
“Oh! Y-yes yes…I...I´m sorry…what was that? A swallow of liquefied dragon scales…”
“NO! Not a swallow, a small…”

BOOM!

Too late.
The elixir exploded in front of the two ponies into a dark cloud of soot.
Taken aback, Twilight looked at the cracked flacons in front of her. Her face and Prof. Albert were black because of the soot.
Silence filled the room.
The purple mare shook her head and the soot disappeared. She giggled sheepish in embarrassment. “Um…I...guess that was, um...a teeny tiny bit too much?...”
“MISS SPARKLE!”
“I´m sorry…” she said crestfallen.
The professor sighed angrily. “What should I do with you? You always had been my best student! And this year, I perpetually have to wake you up from sleep? What´s up with you, Miss Sparkle?”
“I´m sorry! I…I couldn´t sleep last night. I had a nightmare and...couldn´t get it out of my head…I didn´t sleep all night...” she explained dejected.
“And why hadn´t you excuse yourself from lessons?”
“Because I…didn´t want to miss the first school day?...” she asked with a constrained smile.
Prof. Albert snorted and trotted back to his desk. “Well, that sounds at least like the Twilight Sparkle I know…”
He took of a red ballpen and the class register and made a note on a page. Then he looked at Twilight again.
“You can go now! For today, you are official absent with valid excuse. I´ll turn a blind eye to this. But just this once, you understand me? Now, go and rest!”
She wanted to disagree with him, but his expression advised her, to hold her horses. With her head hanging, she left the class room and walked through the empty floor.

Now, she needed her friends…and fortunately she knew where they were. So she climbed the stairs to the third floor and headed for the library…

______________________________________________________________________

When she reached the round foyer of the library, there was only silence. But her friends were here, she knew it. After all, before summer vacations had started, Bleach and Silverleaf had promised Mrs. Bookheart to help her with her new exhibition when they were back. And her friends never broke a promise!
Also Lucien, the colt she and the others once had called a friend, had joined them. Of course only to avoid lessons, she guessed.
Looking around, she searched for her friends, but because of the countless bookcases around her, she couldn´t see anypony. But she saw the mass of blue and red flowers everywhere. They were on the desks, on the book-shelves, on the windowsills…everywhere were the colorful and good-smelling garlands, lightening up the library´s odd blue-white look.
That was definitely Silverleaf´s work!

“Hello!” she called. “Is anypony there?”
“Oh, I know this lovely voice!” a deep and soft voice answered from the depths of the bookcases.
“Me too!” a second male voice shouted.
“Me three!” a female voice sang.
“And I´m the fourth!” an elder female voice answered.

A minute later, the first of the voices appeared: a snow-white unicorn-stallion at her age with a long straight raven mane, reaching down nearly all the way to the floor. A small black scrunchie tied the mane up, which felt down his left side and covered one of his eyes. She couldn´t help, but she loved this mane...and its bearer...
“Hey Twi!” Bleach, her best friend since her first day at school, greeted. “Shouldn´t you have lessons right…Oh my gosh!” he shouted when he saw her. “What in the name of Celestia happened to you? Don´t get me wrong, but…you look horrifying!”
She smiled wise. “Thanks for the compliment, Bleach!” she said and agreed with him. She really looked horrifying! The bags under her eyes, the bloodshoted eyes, the snarled mane and the rests of the soot on her light pale face! His reaction had definitely a good reason.
But he didn´t seem to catch the irony of her answer and stammered: “I…I didn´t mean so…I mean…you…”
“How sensitive you are!” another stallion said and Lucien appeared between the bookcases. He looked Twilight over and frowned. “But, kinda, he is right. You´re looking very…harassed. What happened?”
“Oh, it was just a nightmare, nothing to worry about.”

“A nightmare?” Bleach furrowed. “Seemed to be the worst nightmare…”
“...Nightmare Moon could´ve send me. Heard that before.” she smiled. “And yes, it was horrifying!”
“Poor you!” Lucien meant gently. “What was your dream about?”
“Oh, nothing that makes much sense. Just some shadows chasing after me and pouncing on me. The eerie thing was: everything felt so real! I felt like I would die when those scary alicorn-shadows got me.” She shuddered at the thought of the creepy shadows.
Bleach smiled soft. “Alicorn-shadows? That sounds creepy! How did your brain hit that?”
She smiled back shrugging. “I don´t know. In a book I read a dream is the reflection of our subconscious mind and our memories. Whilst dreaming, our brain comes to terms with the events we underwent the day. But I can´t remember anything that explains these shadows…”
“Maybe it was just a bad dream without a meaning.” the light gray stallion calmed her and Twilight nodded.
“Yeah, you are right there, but still…I´m fearing that they would come again next time I close my eyes.” she admitted low-voiced.
“Nah, come on, Twi! You´re way too tough and intelligent to be uninhibited by some stupid phantoms, aren´t you?” Bleach opined.
“Yeah, but still…”
“Well, maybe you just need somepony at your site while you´re sleeping.” Lucien offered with a charming smile. “Somepony that shoos the nightmares away…” he searched for her purple eyes and kept smiling his charming smile.
The white stallion next to him only sighed and rolled his eyes.
And YOU call ME pathetic… he thought.

Twilight just smiled and didn´t know, what she should answer. Of course, she knew, as well as Bleach, that Lucien was just a player. But how could she decline his offer without being rude?
“Well, I think that´s enough, guys!” a female voice broke the short silence. Silverleaf appeared in the back of the two colts, an empty basket in her mouth. Both stallions gave way and she trotted over to greet her friend with an amicable hug.
“Hey Twi!” she greeted her smiling.
“Hello Silv!” the scholar greeted back.
Silverleaf gave her the once-over and frowned. “Don´t mind me, but…Bleach´s right. You are looking horrible!”
Twilight smiled. “And again: Thanks for the compliment!”
The silver mare giggled. “Well, I´ve already finished here. If you have a free minute…”
The purple mare nodded and explained the chemistry incident to her.
“So you have a free minute! Good! Then let´s go to the city and relax! Sorry guys, but this is definitely a best friends´ and, in addition, a mare´s job. See ya later!”

And before one of the colts could say anything against her, Silverleaf and Twilight had left the library…

______________________________________________________________________

“Thank you for saving me from Lucien.” Twilight said relieved while they walked along the cobble-stone road.
“Nonsense! There´s no need to thank me. You´re my best friend! That goes without saying.”
She just nodded and yawned in response.

Twilight was really tired. No surprise, she didn´t sleep since her nightmare after all. But maybe a walk through the city could refresh her a little bit, that at least was Silverleaf´s idea. Together they left the school grounds and walked through the busy roads of the Central City Center of Canterlot. Everywhere they could see different stores, touting with big colorful promotional signs for their wares.
But Silverleafs designation weren´t the stores. The silvery mare headed for a quieter place and left the busy center, leading Twilight to one of the outer districts.
“I can´t believe he once had been our friend!” the purple unicorn then continued their conversation.
“Me neither. He really had changed a lot…” Silverleaf agreed.

He really did.
Once, Lucien had been a very calm and nice soul. He had been an artist and always catered for the special effects of the school productions with his element-controlling. But one day, he had started to change, slow, but steady. He began to become praggish and startedto malign the others. He started to chase after mares, just to drop them after their first night together. It was then when they broke with him. And shortly after, he also started to offend them.
Except for Twilight.
She was his next chosen 'mare-victim'.

“What do you think had changed him that much?” Twilight then asked.
“I don´t know...too much time went by since all began, I can´t remember very well. Maybe we just had grown apart.”
“Maybe…I wish he would still be the nice gentle colt he once had been...”
“Yeah...Well, here we are!” Silverleaf sang smiling.

The two friends stood in front of a big white house. Some stairs led to the entrance. The whole building looked very…luxurious. Above the entrance there was a marble slab and, engraved in it, Twilight read: ‘Silver-Spa – let your soul fly high’. Twilight frowned. “A Spa? That´s very unlike you…”
“Well, can´t go out for a tennis or volleyball match at my...uhm...I mean your current condition, right?” She giggled, slightly nervous.
Twilight frowned even more at her friends´ slip of the tongue and her behavior, but said nothing.
She only answered with a short “Right.” and together they entered the Spa.

Inside, they found themselves in a wide foyer.
Everything was made of polished white marble. On the ceiling there was a big mosaic, showing a scene in a medieval bathhouse. On the left side there was a small brown-marbled counter. And behind the counter there was a silver-coated light blue-maned mare reading a magazin.
“Welcome to the Silver-Spa!” she greeted them friendly and put away her magazin when she noticed her guests. “What can I…Oh!” she broke herself when she saw Silverleaf, which just grinned mischievous at her. “Well, well! I never saw anything more bizarre than you in a Spa!”
“Hi sis!” she greeted the earth pony behind the counter. “Twilight, allow me to introduce you my sister Silversoul. Silversoul, this is my best friend Twilight.”
“Hi! Nice to meet you!” Twilight greeted her.
“Nice to meet you, too.” Silverleaf´s sister greeted back smiling. “Silverleaf told me a lot about you. She said you´re a bookworm and an incorrigible egghead, is that true?”
“Well, kinda…”
“Kinda?” Silverleaf interrupted her. “How many books did you read in your summer vacations?”
“Um…about thirty?” she said sheepishly smiling.
“See? I told the truth. She is our little bookworm!” Silverleaf said laughing and ruffled trough Twilights mane. Silversoul laughed. “Seems that you´re really very good friends. But should I expect anything other after...how many years do you know each other? Twelve?"
Both nodded.
"See? Anyway now, what can I do for you?”

______________________________________________________________________

Several minutes later they found their selves in a great luxurious hot tub and sighed in relief while the warm water flushed away their sorrows. The bouquet of wild flowers was perfumed by some aromatic candles. Silverleaf loved this scent.

“This was a really good idea, Silv!” Twilight sighed and closed her eyes, resting her head in her forelegs.
The silvery unicorn smiled contented. “Thank you. My sister opened this spa a few months ago. Normally, I don´t come here, you know. I´m more interested in sportive activities…” she sighed satisfied. “But, maybe, I should take a break more often and come over here. That´s way healthier...”
Twilight just nodded and made her own thoughts to that. Silverleaf always was very vigorous and a mare one usually had to force to sit still for only ten minutes. She was very active and sportive, if she wasn´t occupied with her flowers...or her coltfriend...
Mentioning colts: “I wonder how Bleach´s getting on with Lucien now…” Twilight said after a while with an absent look. Silverleaf snickered.
“You love him…” she sang. It wasn´t guessed, it was a statement.
Granted, she loved Bleach since their eyes had met the first time. First, she had been confused. Everywhere had been that strange tingling in her stomach when she saw him, listened to him or thought at him, but she hadn´t known why she felt this way around him. Of course, Twilight had known about love, and Silverleaf knew about her love for him from the very beginning when they first had met, even before she knew it herself, but Twilight never understood, why she loved him. There had been nothing, no scientifical explanation nor anything else that could really explain it to her.
It took a very long time to simply accept it.
But though, she never got the strength to confirm it to him...

She took a deep breath. "Yes. Yes, I do love him...desperatly...” It was the first time she confirmed it to her.
Smiling wide, Silverleaf leaned back in the tub. Her golden eyes focused the white ceiling. "You have no idea how long I´ve been waiting for you to say that, do you? Twelve! Twelve years!"
"Yeah, it´s been quite some time..." the scholar chuckled.
Her friend only sighed. "I just can´t believe you two aren´t married yet!"
"MARRIED? Are you kidding me? Optimally with two foals or what now?"
Silverleaf chuckled. "After twelve years of being together it wouldn´t be such an illogical scenario. After all, there are ponies at your age who already have foals and are married. I´m still wondering why this isn´t already the case of your brother and Cadence..." She sighed again and sat up, facing her friend. "Anyway, I said: after twelve years of being together! You even aren´t with him, yet!"
"Yeah..." she sighed and leaned back "...I know...And that´s what I wish I could change..."
"Then go and get him! Nothing will change if nopony of you is able to take the first step! Though, first step somehow isn´t very fitting regarding the amount of small cheek-pecks you gave each other in our younger days. The more annoying it is for me to watch you pussyfooting around!"
"But...how? How should I get him?" She sighed again. "I even don´t know if he´s feeling the same for me..."
"Don´t you worry, Twi..." Silverleaf replied, calmer this time. "Believe me, I bet he has the same feelings for you. And I´m sure you´ll find a way to confess your feelings to him. Where there´s love there´s a way.”
"Thank you, Silv...thank you..."

Finally, they left the spa and headed back for the school. It was late now. Silversoul gave them the complete spa-program, so they were completely relaxed now. But also, they were tired. Twilight gave long yawns at their way home. That ‘Soul-Refresher’, how Silverleaf and her sister called the tea they drank in the end, made her want to sleep instantly. “So, what do you think?” the green-maned mare asked, also yawning. “Are there still creepy shadows in your head?” Twilight shook her head. Their trip to the ‘Silver-Spa’ had dispelled any thoughts of her nightmare. “No. I think I´ll sleep peaceful now.” she meant smiling. “Thanks a million to you.” “Nah, no need to thank me. As I said earlier, that all goes without saying.” she said and smiled softly. Soon they arrived at the sixth floor of the school where Twilights chamber was. Silverleafs´ chamber was on the seventh, so they had to part. A few students were still on their way, but not many. It was about 9 p.m. The most students already lay in their bed. “Well then, see you tomorrow after school?” Silverleaf asked and the purple unicorn nodded. “Then: Good night, sleep tight, don´t let the bedbugs bite!” And then, Silverleaf had left.

At her chamber, Spike was already asleep. She heard his slight snoring from his room. On her desk there were the notes with the lessons she missed the day. Spike must have been busy as a bee. She smiled. Sometimes she asked herself what she would do without her number one assistant and without her friends. Totally exhausted, she lay down in her bed and instantly felt asleep…