Chapter 1
In the magical land of Equestria, the inhabitants of this bright and cheery landscape are just beginning to stir. One such inhabitant lives in a library in the center of a town called Ponyville. The purple coated horse woke from a rather fitful sleep, as if something was very wrong. She trotted out of her room and down the stairs to the foyer of the library and was greeted with an awful surprise. She screamed loud enough for the whole village to hear. Behind her, a small, purple and green dragon walked down the stairs looking absolutely exhausted.
“What’s happened this time Twilight? Did you find one of your quills tilted out of place?”
Twilight only lifted a hoof towards a glass case and the small dragon paused for a moment to look. It took his sleepy head a bit of time to realize just what had happened, but when he did, Twilight suddenly found her voice again and screamed:
“SOMEONE’S STOLEN THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!”
In the Canterlot Castle, Celestia had just finished raising the sun and was currently reading through her many letters and documents, signing and responding when appropriate. Suddenly, the doors burst open and Luna flew backwards into the big throne room and skidded to a halt in the center. Discord walks in with an evil glare in his eyes and a wide smile on his face. Luna tried to get up, but Discord using her own body to open the doors, and the attack that he performed, made it impossible. The two guards at Celestia’s side charged at Discord, but were quickly dispatched by a snap of Discord’s fingers.
“Discord! What is the meaning of this?” Celestia gasped, horrified at what she just saw.
“Oh nothing Celestia, Luna and I were just having a bit of fun. Or should I say, Nightmare Moon and I were preparing to have a little fun.”
“What are you talking about? Nightmare Moon will never awaken again; I cast a spell—” she broke her sentence off and gasped. Right before her eyes, Luna’s coat was turning black and her mane became much more ghostly and wispy. Luna looked at herself, horrified as she felt the same dark feelings she felt when she first became Nightmare Moon. She looked up at Celestia, fear in her eyes, and Celestia saw that fear turn to greed and hatred for the second time in her life and it was as horrifying now as it was before.
“Oh yes, I believe you did cast a spell that would prevent Luna from becoming Nightmare Moon, but you only suppressed her negative emotions, you didn’t get rid of them. You’ve also forgotten that I am able to bring those dark emotions to the surface, and grow them. Everyone has them, even you.”
Celestia suddenly started to feel her emotions turning dark. She tried to hold them back with feelings of love and happiness, but she could tell that she would soon lose the fight.
“Why are you doing this Discord? I thought you were taught the meaning of friendship when Fluttershy befriended you.”
“Do you really believe that something like that can actually work on me? My ‘reformation’ is impossible and I really hoped you wouldn’t believe it wasn’t. However, in your desperation and your hope, you were blinded to that fact. I knew it would be your downfall, and now you do too.” Discord finished that last sentence with a joyous tone.
“Don’t think this is the end of it, Discord. The Elements of Harmony are with Twilight and the others, and you cannot touch them.”
“And you are correct; I am unable to touch them because of the spell you cast. I cannot even manipulate them with my magic. However, you are seriously underestimating me Celestia. Don’t you think that after my last couple of attempts I would become a bit wiser?”
“Yes, Celestia, why would you underestimate Discord, especially when you know you have enemies other than Discord,” said a new voice, that was all too familiar.
“Chrysalis!” Celestia yelled in surprise, her negative emotions just barely being kept back.
“Oh, Celestia, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me already. It’s only been a year. You’re going to hurt my feelings.”
“This still doesn’t change anything. Twilight Sparkle and her friends still possess the Elements of Harmony and—“ Once again her speech was interrupted by a terrible sight. Behind Chrysalis were six of her changelings, each of them wearing one of the Elements of Harmony.
“As you can see, my dear, sweet Celestia, your Elements of Harmony are no longer a threat to us,” Discord replied, his voiced laced with delight.
Celestia could feel her resolve weakening, and the horrid, creeping emotions slowly taking over her mind started moving more swiftly. Then she remembered something.
“As usual, Discord, you refuse to listen to reason and you continue to trick those who try to help you. You apparently have also underestimated me, the one who originally overthrew you.”
“Your only means of beating me has been taken away, and you continue to think yourself above me? Don’t make me laugh Celestia.”
Despite his best efforts, he still was unable to keep back the torrent of evil laughter that welled up inside him. His euphoria developed by his triumph was just too much to hold back. Chrysalis also joined in the evil laughter. This was exactly what Celestia was hoping for, however, and she launched a spell while they were distracted. It hit Discord full on and his joyous mood quickly turned to one of pain. Discord’s face scrunched up, showing the pain that was wracking his body, and he fell to the floor and started convulsing. The yellow aura around his body started expanding outward behind his back. As it did this, Discord’s back started lengthening. When it became twice as large as before, it split into two. This happened all across his body and continued until there were two Discords in the room.
Celestia then cast another spell at the second Discord and he disappeared into a blue and purple vortex that appeared behind him. She was then attacked by Chrysalis, who was distracted by the horrible thing that was happening to Discord, and only just thought about stopping Celestia’s actions. Celestia was thrown back against the throne behind her and she collapsed on it. She could feel the dark emotions becoming stronger and she knew she had little time before they completely took over. She quickly chanted another spell.
Chrysalis bore down on Celestia like a wasp, but she was too late. Celestia finished the spell and shot a yellow blast of magic up into the air, out one of the windows, and it disappeared into the sky. Discord, who was now able to move, although his body was still in pain, walked up to Celestia and glared into her eyes.
“What did you do to me? What sort of spell was that?”
“I split your power into two,” Celestia whispered in agony, still fighting the dark emotions that were taking over her mind. “You can no longer manipulate reality to your own will. This was a spell that was being developed by Star Swirl the Bearded before we were able to find the Elements of Harmony, and turn you to stone. Lucky for you, this is still an unfinished spell, and only I and Luna know about it after all these years.”
Discord snapped his fingers, this time nothing happened. He turned towards the stained glass window and snapped his fingers again, seemingly to turn into the picture of him on the window. Nothing. He snapped his fingers once again and teleported to the center of the room. However, he came out looking flushed, as if it took all his remaining energy to do it. This was probably due to the fit of pain he just experience. Discord became severely annoyed and a little panicked.
“This means nothing, you are just weak from the ordeal the spell put you through, there’s no way Celestia can take away your powers.” Chrysalis said in a falsely optimistic tone.
“No, I did not take away his powers, I divided them. Yes most of your weakness is probably due to splitting apart and not because of the effects themselves. However, you are weaker, and the most you will be able to do at full strength is truly defeat an Ursa Minor, though it would be troublesome. In fact, now your magic is not much more advanced than Chrysalis’.”
By this time Celestia was beginning to have her coat change from white to black and her mane was turning into a golden color. She was almost completely taken by the negative emotions. Her behavior was also changing, illustrated by her mocking comment towards Discord. Discord felt angry and frustrated, but after seeing the state Celestia was in calmed him down.
"Well, no matter, the only thing that can stop me is still the Elements of Harmony, and they are in my possession. All I have to do is find out where you sent my other half and join with it and I will become invincible." He started to laugh maniacally, but Celestia still had a bit of defiance left inside her.
"You'll never get that wish, for I am the only one who knows that information and when my other self surfaces, she won't know either. Also, don't think that you are invincible yet, eventually the citizens of Equestria will rise against you, led by a group of warriors who may not have a strong disposition against killing you!"
Celestia was a couple of seconds from losing herself completely and, as a result, couldn't help but let loose a torrent of evil laughter after that statement. She continued laughing even until she lost consciousness.
In an alternate universe, things were a bit more peaceful. In a large city, there was a building that had a large gymnasium in it and there were eight pairs of teenagers fighting inside of it. Apparently it isn’t very peaceful at all. However, there were also many spectators cheering the fighters on. The fighters looked as if they were having fun too, when they weren’t getting punched and kicked in sensitive areas on their body. A few of the fights were already finished and the winners and losers were resting on the side-lines, watching the other fights unfold. One such fight included a dark haired kid of average stature and a blonde kid of the same build. They were pretty evenly matched and they had more people surrounding the stage that they fought on than the other fighters did, meaning many people wanted to see the outcome of this fight.
The dark haired boy charged and sent a barrage of punches at the blonde kid, but the blonde blocked and dodged each of them easily. He retaliated with a quick knee to the stomach, but the black haired boy blocked it and threw a punch at the blonde’s face. He dodged it and attacked the dark haired boy in the stomach again with his fist. He side stepped the blow and threw a punch directly at the side of the blonde’s head as he did so and he finally connected. The blonde staggered a little, and the other boy kicked at the back of the blonde’s feet. The blonde fell to the floor, but they were near the edge of the ring and he just happened to fall off. This had been the dark haired boy’s plan and he jumped up and down triumphantly and so did many members of the audience.
“Yeah! Go Darkflare!”
A boy who was about the same age as Darkflare came up onto the stage and joined in the jumping and yelling. He had brown hair and he had a slightly smaller build, but it was still an athletic build and he was stronger than he looked. The two of them got off the stage after they finished cheering and the other fights had also finished. Then a man in a suit got up on the center stage and he spoke through a microphone.
“Well, that concludes today’s preliminary rounds. The eight victors will report here tomorrow at eight o’clock in the morning, where the tournament will begin.”
Darkflare and the other boy started walking out of the gym. On the way out, they were joined by two other people. One was a dirty blonde, large, muscular boy, still the same age as Darkflare and only slightly taller. The other one was a boy who had black hair and was of the same build and age as Darkflare.
“That was a good win Darkflare. Your strategy to move him to the edge of the platform was brilliant,” said the larger boy.
“Thank you Zero,” Darkflare responded.
Zero's father was a fireman and his mom stayed at home, and both of them stressed the importance of helping people. His father was also a chief, and he would always act the part, so he would always be assertive and outspoken, and when he gave a command, people would follow through with it because of the great deal of respect they had for him.
All this rubbed off on Zero, who grew up to become a hero in the eyes of many. He would often stop a kid from being bullied. He never pulled any pranks that were potentially harmful, although he did like to joke around, which resulted in a couple of harmless pranks every so often. He was friendly toward everyone and he was very convincing and well-respected by those he interacted with, to the point that they would follow his commands. He takes self-defense classes here at the gym, but he doesn't participate in the tournaments as they are about winning a prize and not learning to defend himself and others.
“Yeah, though it wasn’t as great as my win was,” replied the other boy.
“You mean when you almost fell off the platform by the same technique, Balfour?” responded the smallest of the four in a semi-mocking.
“Hey, I did that on purpose Tarix. Plus, I still managed to throw my opponent over the edge.” Balfour said, pretending to sound hurt.
Balfour was very much like Zero. His father was a cop who did his job very well and his mother stayed at home. His father knew what it meant to be a cop and he was a police chief. He believed that anyone who did not obey the law were scum, but he saw that some people could be forgiven and that sometimes the law did not act in favor of the people.
This fact was lost on Balfour, however, as he did not tolerate anyone who broke the rules. This made him a menace to bullies and thieves, but it also meant he could be hostile towards anyone, even if their reasons for defiance were sound, or if the offence was minor. He was a great fighter, although he was very cocky and he often did not think through his actions. However, he is very quick on his feet and he has this uncanny ability to use any weapon he's carrying as if he had been training with it for years even though he only just picked it up a couple of seconds ago.
Tarix, on the other hand, was one of the more devious one of the group. His father was a Navy SEAL and was a very well-liked guy. Tragically, he died over seas while Tarix's mother was pregnant. As a result, his mother raised him by herself, never remarrying, or dating. His mother was a fantasy novelist and she was so good at her job that she could make up a story in a matter of minutes. She was especially good at making battle scenes, and the trilogy she had already published was an epic fantasy that rivaled The Lord of the Rings and The Inheritance Cycle.
She would always tell Tarix tales about his father. She would tell some of the stories that he had often told her, with a few modifications, and then she would make up tales in which the father was a mighty warrior who beat back waves of terrible hoards of monsters single-handedly. Tarix grew up to have a great interest in the dark ages and weaponry such a swords, bows, and other medieval weaponry, and he also seemed to have the same story telling abilities as his mother. He was also a brilliant strategist and a very hyper-active kid. He was devious too, and often pulled pranks at the expense of others, which annoyed Zero and Balfour. He wasn't the strongest person, but his intelligence and small, agile body made him a force to be reckoned with.
“Neither of your wins were as great as mine. I actually knocked my opponent out,” came a new voice from behind, which caused Balfour to jump as high as the twenty meter roof of the gym.
“Good God, Baldur, stop doing that!” Balfour yelled in angrily.
"Stop doing what?" Baldur questioned in mock seriousness.
Baldur was a black haired kid of average build. He also had a light step, which made him almost impossible to hear approach. Sometimes he didn't even mean to do it, he just shows up next to people like he normally would, and they would yell in fright. He would feel a grim satisfaction at having done that. The only one who matched his quiet behavior was Darkflare, except when he did it, he was only amused by his friends' reactions, and he never did it on purpose.
Baldur was the darker hearted person of the group. His father had left him and his mother when he was five and his mother just didn't care after that. She would always ignore Baldur, her head in the clouds hoping her husband would return, refusing the fact that he had left and was never coming back.
Baldur started secluding himself from the world. Never making friends, never doing anything outside of school, and the self-defense classes. Baldur was the kid who no one would spar with because he fought without any remorse. Then, one day Darkflare joined the gym along with Zero and Balfour. The first few weeks were okay, Baldur avoided them and they didn't mind. Then Baldur had gone up against one of his classmates and he beat the kid up relentlessly. Darkflare jumped in and started fighting Baldur.
For the first time, Baldur had gone up against a most competent fighter and had a tough fight. Darkflare ultimately won and Baldur tried returning to the way things were, but he couldn't help feeling respect towards Darkflare. This was made even harder when Darkflare decided that he was going to follow Baldur around. During the fight, Darkflare had looked into Baldur's eyes and he could see the pained look that told him that Baldur was not how he seemed. This continued until Baldur began to let Darkflare into his heart.
Darkflare is also more grim ones of the group. He doesn't like to show emotion, he can move very quietly, and he doesn't talk much. His father was a marine who followed his own code, which usually consisted of traits normally associated with the Marine Corps. He was brave, courteous, kind, honor bound, strong and loyal. He knew right from wrong, but he also saw the gray areas and he also had his own set of rules that didn't always coincide with the official set of rules.
Darkflare's mother was the same way. She was a medic in the Navy, and she often employed methods of treating patients that most other medics would never have thought to do. Sometimes her methods were seen as contradictory to how medics should treat patients, but they have always achieved positive results and the patients themselves knew that if she weren't their doctor, they would have lost a limb, or even their lives.
Both of his parents were strong individuals, set in their ways and very cheerful, but Darkflare was a grim figure. He was still a strong individual who never wavered in his beliefs and followed his own set of rules, but he was a quiet individual who sat in his room and played video games all day, very rarely going out and doing something worthwhile, and never showing emotion, not even happiness or humor.
Then Darkflare met Tarix. Tarix had been a prankster who never had friends because of his pranks. He didn't even try to make friends because he felt they were all boring. Compared to the stories his mom told him and his own imagination, he never needed another person to entertain him. Then they shared an experience that would forever solidify their friendship.
From there, Tarix made Darkflare into a relatively happier and outspoken individual, and Tarix became more laid back and more cunning. They both played pranks on others and on each other. Darkflare was able to handle the more physical side of the pranks because he was much stronger than Tarix, and Tarix was more agile and was better at moving in small spaces. They both partook in the planning, Tarix coming up with most of it, but Darkflare had to point out flaws that were more for show than practicality. Darkflare was the strong realist and Tarix was the romantic strategist.
They finally arrived back home. Home was an orphanage in the center of the city. It was used to be a prestigious mansion that house a royal family for generations. However, one day the six princes had suddenly vanished from the mansion. This lead to the family dying out as the king's wife had died shortly after the vanishing, and he was too stricken at the loss of his sons and wife to try and remarry. The mansion sat there empty for decades, the city erecting around it from the old village it once was, and the villagers took care of the mansion as the royal family was always kind to them, and they expected the princes to return eventually and claim it once more. Needless to say, they never came back and eventually a new generation came in and the royal family was all but forgotten. Then one day a man bought the mansion and turned it into an orphanage. Darkflare and the others came here after each of their parent's unfortunate deaths.
They reached the inner gates and went inside and there were two figures out on the front lawn. One was just laying down looking up at the clouds, and the other one was sitting next to him and talking to him. The one sitting saw the group of five boys and sprang up from the ground and rushed to greet them. He was average height and he was quite chubby, but he was just a huge ball of energy.
"Hey guys! How did it go, did you all win your matches, tell me everything that happened."
"Slow down Alfy, give them a chance to respond," the other boy said, sounding tired.
"It's alright Day Dreamer, I don't mind," said Darkflare.
Darkflare and the group told Alfy and Day Dreamer how they all won their matches and were going to enter into the tournament. Alfy listened and acted very enthusiastically while Day Dreamer just nodded his head and smirked occasionally. Alfy was always a very energetic person. He always acted with a lot of enthusiasm and he was wildly hyperactive. His parents had owned a joke shop in the city and had always been cheerful and nice towards him as a baby. They both died in a car crash when Alfy was three, so he was not affected by the loss.
Day Dreamer was the laziest one of the group. He would only ever lay on the grass and watch the clouds roll by. At night he sat and looked at the stars, and during rainy days he would play video games with his friends. He did the latter more often as he became friends with each of the six boys, though. Although, when he was given a job to do, he would often do it willingly and he would put his full effort into doing it in the simplest and fastest way possible.
He had been at the orphanage the longest as he was left on the doorstep when he was a baby. None of the staff knew who his parents were, and there wasn't even a note on him when they found him. Eventually, Alfy moved there and they became best friends really quickly. Then Zero arrived when he was five, after his father was trapped inside of a burning building trying to save someone. Baldur came two years later, but he made himself out to be a loner at first. His father left Baldur and his mother when he was five and his mother loved his father so much that she lost the will to live while waiting for him to come back two years later.
Balfour came only a year later when his parents were shot and killed. One of the people his father put away managed to escape prison. The man found out where Balfour lived and came during the night. After much torture the man finally decided to kill them. Balfour had taken refuge inside the closet, and luckily the man didn't know about a child. Balfour had a cell phone and used it to call the police. Unfortunately, they were unable to arrive in time to save them.
Two years later, Darkflare and Tarix both became orphans. Darkflare's mom had died in a car crash when he was five and five years later his father was killed in action. Tarix's father was dead long before Tarix was born and his mom died of cancer when he was ten.
Now, this is where they lived and while each of them cannot be happy being orphans, they still can find happiness in their lives because each of them are good friends. They are all the same age and they are almost able to leave the orphanage. They were building up the funds required to move out and go to college. They felt that it'd be a good idea to stick with each other for as long as possible, and they all agreed to help each other in their own way.
They had started walking around the city for a while. They had a secret hideout near one of the stores in the city that they frequently visited. They bought a couple of snacks and sat around the hideout for a while playing video games and just talking. Then it started to get dark and they knew they would get in trouble if they stayed out any longer. They weren't exactly the most popular group in the city. Tarix and Darkflare always play pranks, Balfour and Zero's senses of right and wrong often got the group into fights, and even if they were for a good purpose, they were still seen as unnecessary and disruptive. They also stayed up late playing video games and that's why they found the hideout.
They actually were home right on time and they breathed sighs of relief. They made it in time for dinner and the orphanage had a rule about having everyone present before eating, unless the children informed someone of their absence. However, there waiting in the doorway, was the most despicable man who worked at the orphanage, Mr. Filch.
He was a bald man with grey hair on the sides of his head. He had a good amount of stubble on his face, but the oldness of his face made it look ugly. He walked with a cane, had a lazy eye, and all this made him seem like an old bad guy, and he was. No one knows why he is allowed to work. The owner probably doesn't know about what Filch did to punish the children. He does follow all the rules, but apparently there are no rules on punishments. He doesn't lock the kids up, nor does he ever physically hurt them directly.
He does, however, find pleasure in punishing children and he does it in the hardest and most menial tasks he can find. He was known to make the orphans run laps around the huge mansion, and he would make them clean certain unbearably disgusting places with the most useless utensils he could find. He would also try to find the smallest excuse to punish them. If someone didn't go to bed at the right time, if they were a few seconds late to dinner, or if someone didn't flush the toilet, he was sure to come around the corner and punish them.
He would also inspect the rooms and if they weren't completely spotless then he would flip the bed, empty the drawers, and mess up the room and make the person clean it up. He did this when he assigned a cleaning task as punishment. If it wasn't completely clean, he would mess it up and make them clean it again.
The old man stood in the door way with a twinkle in his eye. Darkflare looked at his watch and saw they had a couple of minutes left, but there were still precious few of them and he knew that Filch would manage to keep them there until they were late. It was stupid and childish, but it was an excuse and Darkflare knew they had to find some way to get past Filch fast.
"Hello boys," Filch said joyfully, as if he enjoyed their presence. "You ready for dinner?"
The seven knew this was just a front and he was just trying to stall them. They could have easily walked in, but Filch was in the doorway and they could only get past if he moved out of the way.
"Hi Mr. Filch," Alfy started, "I am starving as a matter of fact, and I would love to go in and eat."
"Oh, but it is such a fine night out tonight, don't you want to watch the sunset?"
"I'm sure the sunset is beautiful, but food sounds much more appealing at the moment, so if you would let us through," Zero prompted.
"But I thought nature was enough to--"
"Mr. Filch! What is the hold up, I am starving over her. Oh, well if it isn't my favorite kids."
An old man with white hair and a white mustache walked out. He was a little bit taller than Filch and his steel gray eyes were warm and inviting.
"Hello Mr. Keaton," Filch said, sounding the least bit annoyed at the interruption. "I was just welcoming these boys home."
"Well, it is almost dinner time. How are you doing boys? You must be starving after your matches today."
Mr. Keaton was the owner of the mansion and he visited every so often, usually once or twice a month. He was a very mysterious man though, no one ever knew when he would arrive though, nor did they know if he arrived. He was a very nice man regardless, and he got along very well with teenagers.
He seemed to be focusing most of his time on this group of boys for some reason, probably because they were almost eighteen and ready to move out. He knew about their self-defense classes and he kept tabs on what was going on there, and he also knew about their plans to go to the same college and live together. That was also one of the reasons he could be interested in them. Mr. Keaton seemed to be proud of their endeavors, and he has even assisted them on multiple occasions.
"Our matches went very well sir, we all managed to enter into the finals," Zero told him.
"Wonderful, I would like to hear all about it, but over dinner, I'm starving!"
They went inside and had dinner. They got in the dining room at seven, so they were in the clear this time. Mr. Keaton always happened to be around Filch when he visited, and he always seemed to interfere whenever he was about to punish someone. Naturally, everyone loved it when he visited. The old man was always fun to be around, he kept them out of trouble, and he actually acted like he cared for them.
Hours later, Darkflare and Tarix were about to pull a prank. Mr. Keaton left after dinner and Mr. Filch had gone to unnecessary lengths to making the cleaning process as long and grueling as possible. That, combined with his earlier attempt to get them into trouble made him a good target for tonight's prank.
Mr. Filch was returning from one of his rounds. He was rather tired, and he wasn't very happy since he hadn't been able to punish anyone in a few days. He was desperate to find someone to punish, which was why he tried to get Darkflare and the others in trouble. He went back into his room at the mansion's only entrance. He took one step inside and immediately knew something was up. He had been in the army for a couple of years during the Vietnamese war and he learned how to sense danger. He took a couple of steps into the room and he noticed that one of his drawers were slightly open.
Excited, he walked briskly over to the dresser. He knew that someone had snuck into his room and messed with something, and he knew he could punish the whole lot of the orphans if he could find something that's been tampered with. He opened the drawer and, much to his disdain, nothing was amiss. He slammed the drawer shut and he heard something click, and he immediately knew he had made a mistake. He jumped away from the dresser, only to have the drawer explode out of the dresser and hit the other wall. The door to his bathroom slammed and he heard another explosion go off. He had jumped towards his bed to escape from the dresser, and he landed on the bed, where he heard another click. However, this time he couldn't act fast enough and the next moment he sailed back towards the dresser and hit it pretty hard.
Darkflare and Tarix moved towards the door when Filch closed it behind him. They put their ears to the door and heard him groan when he didn't find anything wrong in his dresser. Then they heard the explosion and the yell that followed. They burst into laughter upon hearing the yell, and they laughed even harder after the second explosion. However, on the third explosion they heard him gasp in pain, like they do on cartoons when the blow is very effective, and they also heard a loud thud, then silence. They were confused at this point, they knew that there was no way that the bombs could hurt him because Tarix used the special stink bombs that were compacted more and were a little bit more powerful than other bombs. They were Tarix's own invention and he knew that they were completely safe. They didn't have any sort of shrapnel inside, nor were they powerful enough to cause internal damage.
However, they did not take into account that Filch was an old man. Neither did they think about how being thrown forcefully at a solid object like a wall or a dresser might be potentially harmful. Now they were becoming frightened and they looked at the door with much apprehension.
"He's alright in there, isn't he Tarix?"
"Well, I sure do hope so."
"Hope? Hope?! Oh God, uhm, I think we'd better check on him."
"Agreed."
Darkflare opened up the door and took a couple of steps inside, but no further than a meter. The light was still on and he could see Filch's figure lying on the floor on the other side of the room. He had blood on his face and for a full minute, Darkflare couldn't see any sort of movement, whether it be breathing or stirring awake.
He walked back out, closed the door, and began walking towards the boys' dormitory. Tarix ran after Darkflare asking he what he saw, but Darkflare just walked in silence. The other five boys were sitting around playing Monopoly when Tarix and Darkflare came in and they saw Darkflare's face and they knew something was up. Darkflare sank into one of the chairs in the room and Tarix stood by him while the other five guys crowded around asking what was wrong.
"Well, we decided to play a prank on Filch, you know for trying to get us into trouble," Tarix began.
"Okay, but what happened?" Zero asked.
"We used Tarix's stupid stink bombs and we killed him!" Darkflare yelled.
"What?!" Screamed the other boys.
"We don't know if we killed him, though, he could have just been unconscious." Tarix reasoned.
"Tarix, I checked him myself. He didn't move at all for a full minute. How could he be alive?" Darkflare yelled.
"You two killed someone and you're not trying to contact the police?" Zero questioned.
"Darkflare only took a couple of steps inside, he's most likely just knocked out." Tarix said again.
"You still aren't trying to tell anyone about it? What if you actually did kill him?" Day Dreamer exclaimed.
"We did not kill him, my stink bombs do not have the ability to kill anyone."
"Not by themselves, but what if he was thrown into something, he is an old man after all," reasoned Day Dreamer.
"You people are whining over nothing. No one cared about Filch anyway, no one like him. The guy was a foul creep, in fact we are probably better off with him dead anyway," Baldur said.
"It doesn't matter if he was a creep, he was still a human being! You were sad when your mom died, weren't you?" Darkflare asked.
"Ha, no. I'm glad that bitch is dead. She ignored and abandoned me while waiting for my jackass of a father to come home. If he did, I probably would have killed them both myself!" Baldur exclaimed.
"I can't stand you people! I'm going to go turn you murderers in right now!" Balfour said as he got up and started walking to the door. Alfy stepped in front of him and blocked his path.
"Now wait a minute, let's all just calm down," Alfy said.
"Calm down? How can I calm down when there are two murderers right in front of me?"
"We did not murder him! All we were doing was playing a harmless prank on him." Tarix said.
"And obviously it all went wrong. This is why I've been telling the lot of you to just ignore Filch! Now your stupid shenanigans have gotten you into trouble!" Zero yelled.
"Ignore that asshole? You expect me to just turn the other cheek when he's trying to hurt my friends? Tarix asked.
"Yeah, if he didn't try to get back at that bastard, I would have, and I wouldn't have been sorry about killing him like this big baby is." Baldur said, pointing at Darkflare.
"I'm not being a baby about this, this is the natural human reaction to killing someone! And who are you to talk about defending your friends? You have never done anything for your friends. All you ever do is moan about how your parents never loved you, then you try to kick the crap out of someone just because they made fun of you for it. How can you say that you hate your parents when you whine about their absence all the time?
"Yeah, you wouldn't have any friends if it weren't for Darkflare," Tarix agreed.
"You too, Tarix. All you ever did was play pranks on people, and then I had to bail you out of trouble. Everyone hated you because you were always playing pranks on people, and it got to the point where I had to become your partner in order to keep you from getting your ass kicked, or even to keep you from getting expelled from school. You wouldn't have any friends if it weren't for me either."
"Good, because no one was ever interesting enough for me anyway. They were all boring retards, much like you were when I first met you. All you would do at school is work and play your handheld games. Back then, you were so boring that I wouldn't have pranked you. Then you met me and you realized there were many more fun things to do. If it weren't for me, all you would have is your stupid video games."
Everyone just stared at them in shock, Tarix and Darkflare had been best friends since grade school and they never had a fight before now. Everyone except for Balfour and Baldur, who just glared at Darkflare angrily. Darkflare was pretty pissed now and he did not like the looks he was getting. All he could see was pity and hatred, and he hated looking weak in front of others.
"Stop looking at me like that! I don't need your pity!" Darkflare yelled.
"It's hard not to pity a murderer." Balfour said.
"It's also hard not to pity an orphan whose parents died because he was too much of a coward to save them," Darkflare retorted.
"At least he wasn't so much of a nuisance that his mother died while paying attention to her whining son instead of the road." Baldur said.
"At least my parents wanted me, you cowardly sack of shit!" Darkflare screamed.
Darkflare and Baldur then ran at each other, finally starting the inevitable fight. But at that moment, a rainbow colored vortex opened underneath all of the boys and they all fell through them. The holes closed up shortly afterward, leaving the dormitory quiet and empty once more.