Pain seeped through me, making my eyes open to the morning light. Quickly I turned over laying on my belly, looking at my body. The pain turned cold and stopped after a moment, I looked around confused.

Unmade sheets lay next to me. It took me a moment to realize that I was alone and once it dawned on me, I looked around the room in a small panic. Master wasn’t here. The memories from last night hit me as my brain started working again.

He’d be gone for a while, and he had given me tasks to complete while he was away. But that didn’t matter, my whole body shivered, making me pull up the sheets. Without Master here, everything felt wrong.

For as long as I’ve known him, I’ve always wanted to escape, but, with him gone I now understood, he owned me. Being without his touch or presence made everything around me burn, yet my freezing body absorbed none of the heat.

“Mrs. High Blood, are you awake?” Sig asked.

How she called for me sent shivers down my spine. “Yes,” I replied, moving to a sitting position.

“Master said to wake you, he has a list of books for you in his study, and that you should go there after breakfast.”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Alright.”

Stretching a bit, my bones cracked, and a jolt of pain shot through me from all my past wounds. Even with the scarring now gone, that only dealt with the surface wounds. Under my skin there were too many for me to want to count. That didn’t stop me from jumping off the bed though and going over to the bathroom to do my business before getting dressed. A few bruises were showing through my fur a bit so I put on some makeup. Sig smiled at me as I opened the door to the hallway, seeing her there made me stop.

“You didn’t need to wait for me.”

“I’m your maid; waiting on you is my job.” She motioned for me to go, and I started walking. Today was going to be very weird, I could feel it. We went to the dining room, and she opened the door letting me inside.

“Scootaloo.” Sweetie Belle’s voice made me halt and look up at her. A nervous feeling rolled over my skin as she got off the chair and ran over to me.

“Sweetie, you’re here.”

“Yes—” She stopped for a moment. “Jerard took Silver Tip. So we will have time to ourselves, but we aren’t allowed to leave the mansion.” She glanced around for a moment; the scent of rotting flesh hit me. It was almost invisible, but it was in this room.

“Kila, you better not be sneaking up on me,” I said plainly.

“I’d never,” Kila said chuckling. I turned to him as he stood behind me in black armor. “But how did you know I was here?”

“So is breakfast ready?” I asked, walking past Sweetie Belle and over to the table ignoring Kila. All three of them were a bit put off, but Kila disappeared and Sweetie came over, sitting down next to me.

“I’ll bring breakfast right now,” Sig said, she walked into the kitchen.

“So now that we can talk freely, how are you feeling right now?” Her words made me turn.

Freely, the word caught me off guard. There wasn’t a single place which we could call free. Now that I thought about it, there wasn’t any real place that I could consider free with Kila watching from the darkness. Actually if anything, when Sweetie and I talked in the hallway that murderous pony was probably listening.

“How I’m feeling?” A repeat of her words. I didn’t know quite why, but there wasn’t a simple answer to it.

“Yes.”

“I feel relaxed.”

But in reality, without Master I feel like I’m made of ice, everything burns my skin and hooves, almost like I’m walking on embers. I’m in more pain without him, than I ever could be when I’m with him.

Then there was the fear of him never coming back, that alone was beyond the feeling of suffocating. The realization made my heart ache and speed up. What if this was Master abandoning me, what if I never saw him again? If last night was the last time I was with him, or what if, what if—

“That’s great.” Her words snapped me back causing me to calm myself. That couldn’t be the case, Master wouldn’t, couldn’t abandon me. He loved me, he wouldn’t have done all this if he was just going to throw me to the wind. Master would come back soon, I would just have to wait.

Another fear hit me, Master was going to come back which meant if I hadn’t completed his task by then, I’d be in major trouble. My mind shot off in a million directions but everything clouded, how, what was I supposed to do?

“Breakfast,” Sig said, alerting me to her as she walked out of the kitchen with a silver cart. She set down food in front of us. Panic was my enemy, I needed to stop and rethink everything.

“Are you alright?” Sweetie asked.

“Yes, sorry, I just got lost in thought. I have a lot I need to do today, but we need to eat first.”

“Sounds great.” Both of us started to eat, finishing our food a few minutes later. She followed me along with Sig. “So what do you need to do?”

“I’m not sure, Master left a list for me to complete.” We walked to his study and went inside. A small stack of books were on his desk, and I went over looking at the list. I’d need to finish these books today.

“So?”

“I need to read these books.” A thought hit me for a moment. “And that’s about it, I just need to learn from them. Nothing special.”

“Oh.” She made a circle with her hoof on the ground.

“It’ll be boring, you can go do other things if you want.”

“I’m fine here.” My eyes drifted to her chest, it was bandaged, but for some reason, I didn’t feel any guilt from seeing it. In fact, I felt like that was something which connected me to Sweetie Belle forever, or at least till she was able to get it removed. Disgust at the thought made me shiver, but at the same time, I reveled in it.

“Come, sit.” I padded the seat next to me, and then scooted over. She smiled and went over, climbing up and sitting down next to me. A small bit of shock went through her as I hugged her tightly. “How’s your chest?” I asked.

“It’s fine, it only really burns when I touch it, but it’s not a problem. Though I didn’t sleep too well last night.”

“Don’t worry, it stops after a day or two. Or at least mine always do.” She looked down a bit. “Can I ask you something?” I inquired.

Sweetie looked at me. “Anything.”

“Have you and Silver already had sex?” For a split second she became unsteady, like I was noticing something she didn’t want noticed.

“OF coUrSe nOt!” she squeaked, making me let go of her.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to hit a nerve.”

She sighed. “We talked about having a bunch of foals, that’s all. We haven’t actually done anything yet. I’m not a pony that would do that before marriage.”

“I’m glad.”

“Why do you ask?”

“Just the impression I got yesterday.” Picking up a book I set it in front of me. “But do you want to have sex with him?”

Blush flooded her cheeks. “What’s with all the sex questions?”

“Last night you said you wanted to join Master and I. You do realize that we would have had sex right? So I’m assuming that you actually want to have sex, and that you are just winging it since he knows your intent.”

Sweetie grimaced. “Sorry about that. I didn’t know if telling the truth was the right choice at the time yesterday.”

“I wouldn’t have said it was the wrong action, but that probably made Master realize what you were doing.”

“We’ll, we gave it a shot.”

“Yes, you did, now I need to read these. If you like there are some books in that section on writing music.” Her eyes popped for a moment, she nodded going over and getting her own book. I started reading, she followed suit.

The books were about how to be refined, but they put it in weird way. They didn’t follow common logic. Instead they would work in any style that suited a pony. If I followed these then, I didn’t know what I’d become. I’d be a monster, but a refined monster to the point that nopony would ever be able to see though it. What would that even be? There wasn’t a word I knew that could describe such a thing.

“Mrs. High Blood,” Al said through the door, making Sweetie and I look up. “Your new pet has arrived, Master said to bring her to you once she arrived.”

“Send her in, uh, please.” It would take me a while to get used to these books and actually use them. Al opened the door and my eyes went wide seeing Diamond Tiara get pushed inside the room.

“I’m going, don’t push me!” she growled. Al closed the door behind them and went over to the desk in front of me, setting down a folder. He turned and left. I looked at the folder and then at Sweetie Belle as she got up off the floor.

“What are you doing here?” Sweetie asked as Diamond Tiara sat down.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” On that note, I opened the folder looking inside. She had signed a contract to follow Master’s and my orders, it didn’t matter what they were. Flipping around a few pages I understood.

“Master caused all of her father’s companies to become completely worthless forcing him to go completely bankrupt in a day.” Both of them instantly looked at me. “Her dad had gotten mixed up in the wrong crowd. If she hadn’t signed the maid contract, her father would have probably been killed, as well as anypony related to him. She didn’t have a choice.” Diamond Tiara looked down, tears going down her face.

“That sums it up,” she said, trying not to breakdown.

We held an awkward silence for a moment before I got off my chair going around the desk to her. “I’m sorry this happened.” She looked at me as I hugged her.

“My daddy really hates me now.” Her voice cracked, and she started to cry into my shoulder, making me hug her tighter.

Pain ran through my heart for only a split second, the guilt of everything to come wasn’t hitting me. First Sweetie Belle, now Diamond Tiara. The list of ponies I had to protect was growing by the day.

When I let her go, she became unsteady. I went over to the desk and pulled out some paper, writing things down. Both of them looked a bit shocked at me because in the middle of the embrace, I left her cold. Sweetie Belle quickly ran over and hugged her. They both shared a glance before looking away.

“Sig,” I called, and Sig opened the door. “Please show, Diamond Tiara to her room, and—” I sighed. “Get her acquainted with her duties. Once I’m done reading I’ll come to talk to her. Please have these things set up for me.” She came over to me and took the note. Her eyes went wide for a moment before looking at me.

Sig had a slightly confused reaction to seeing the list, but it quickly became clear. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I have my orders, and you have yours.”

“Yes, Mrs. High Blood.” I looked away as she went over to Diamond Tiara. “Please follow me.” Sweetie and Diamond let go of each other, and she followed Sig out of the room and closed the door behind her.

“What did you write down?” Sweetie asked.

“Nothing important, just some extra tasks I want her to do. Hopefully it’ll get her mind off of things. Like jumping into a large cake and rolling around before a deep shower. Kind of silly things.”

“That actually sounds like fun.”

“I’m going to keep reading, so...” She started again on that notion, and I did as well. It was a bit hard to concentrate knowing what I was going to do, but I finished reading easily. Closing the last book, I looked at a clock on the desk. I had plenty of time for anything I needed to do, but convincing Sweetie to have sex with me was a whole entire other thing. That would take a lot of work, or just me being forceful. “Well I’m done.”

Sweetie looked up at me, then got up. “So what do you want to do?”

Diamond Tiara could wait till later, breaking her wouldn’t be incredibly hard to do right now. “I was thinking of—never mind, what would—”

“Wait, thinking of what?”

“Nothing, we can do anything you want.”

“No, what did you want?”

“I want to try a few things—on you.”

“Sure.”

“Really?” I asked, getting off the chair and going around the table.

“Yeah, what did you have in mind?”

Was it right for me to do this? Actually, right and wrong didn’t matter anymore, not since I became a murderer. The only thing that mattered was doing what I wanted. Master’s orders were a side note. “Sit,” I commanded. She was surprised by my tone, but sat down. “Don’t move.” She nodded.

Moving forward I pressed my nose to her neck, she trembled as my cold nose pressed against her warm skin. “What—” I took in a deep breath cutting her off and making her blush a deep red. “Why are you smelling me?” she asked softly.

“You smell really good.” Protruding my tongue, I slid it along Sweetie Belle’s neck making her swallow. “And your taste is just as good.”

“Didn’t you want to go try dresses on me?” Her nervousness was priceless. It felt good to be in control for once.

“What? Oh, I wanted to try things on you, not dresses. I want to see how you’ll react to certain things. Like me sniffing you, or licking you, or kissing you.”

“Wait wh—” I kissed her, sliding one hoof behind her and pulling her tightly against my chest. At first she tried to break free, but then loosened up as I gently forced her to the ground giving me more leeway in kissing her.

Her tongue was smooth, almost like wet glass, it felt nice to push it around. Almost like being able to glide across a smooth ramp on plastic wheels. Just the feeling of wind flowing over my body, that sense of freedom.

Pulling back slowly, a few strains broke between our lips. She stared at me with a look of slight submission. Sweetie didn’t want to fight or hurt me, but it was clear that she also enjoyed the kiss and didn’t want to.

I started giggling, and she gave me a look of confusion. “Do you remember when I first kissed you? I was tired to a chair.” My grin made her kind of laugh, but overly nervous still being under me. Sweetie Belle, she had a glossy lipstick, it was of cherry. My tongue ran over my lips lightly.

“Can we get up now?”

“Nope.” Gently, I ran my hoof across her cheek. “I’m far from done. Plus I think you need to learn how to be a better kisser.”

Cutie Belle, that’s what came across my mind when she gave me a smile, but it broke my heart. What in Tartarus was I doing? Quickly I got off of her, making her watch me as I moved back. This whole thing was entirely wrong, my life wasn’t supposed to be this nightmare, and after all I’ve done, I’m only making every second of my life worse. When did I just start to accept this all?

“What’s wrong?” she asked, sitting up.

“I’m done.” Turning, I walked out of the study making Sweetie catch up to me. “I’m leaving.”

“But wait, Jerard said we weren’t allowed to leave, and it’s not like we have anywhere to run.”

“He said I could leave if I wanted to yesterday, so I’m leaving. If he has a problem with that. He can fuck off for all I care!” As we reached the front door Kila was waiting for us, he was frowning through his mask.

“And where pray tell, are you going?” Kila asked.

“I’m going to go back to Ponyville.”

“You’re not allowed off the property.” Altogether, I wasn’t exactly in fighting condition, my spirals were still very painful, and standing was a chore. Though altogether sitting on a train wouldn’t kill me.

“Move.”

“If that’s how you feel, you can leave.” Kila stepped to the side making me unsteady as to what he was planning.

“Just like that?”

“Oh I wouldn’t dream of hurting you, but, the second you leave the property, think about what’ll happen. You have to ask yourself exactly what will it cost you? Does Sweetie Belle mean so little to you? Or what about Apple Bloom? The filly that your, Master, doesn’t care about?”

The use of her name made me want to cry, but I showed nothing. “And? I don’t care what you say.”

“You just think he’ll let it slide? Don’t be an idiot. There’s nothing out that for you to gain by leaving. It’s not like you’re going to get that far anyway, and before you get the notion of trying to get ponies to help you, remember who you’re married to. Just because you won’t suffer physically, doesn’t mean you won’t suffer.” Everything I was doing was wrong today and those books didn’t help me at all.

“What’s it to you?” Sweetie Belle asked, stepping forward. “If she wants to leave you should let her, not threaten her!”

“I get a thousand bits if I keep her here. So I’m trying to make a good argument to keep her here. Well actually I get a thousand no matter what. It’s just, if you leave I have to earn that thousand by killing somepony.” Her eyes popped. “So if I can, I’d much rather avoid doing extra work.”

“Kila, you’ve always had such a way with words,” Al said as he walked around me. Kila held his head high. “You need to learn more than simple killing. Anypony can just kill, you need to do it with style, or it’s a pointless murder.”

“I’m effective, that’s all that matters.”

“Of course, that’d be the only important thing to you, but that’s sloppy and frankly, you need grace. You’re still an amateur as an assassin.”

“Do you have a death wish?” Kila growled.

“I have served the High Blood family line, for generations since Canterlot was first being built and you weren’t even seed in your bastard father’s sack you little piece of shit. You’re more than just outclassed.” A black sword stopped a hair’s breadth from Al’s neck. A sigh escaped Al’s throat. “You’re not even an amateur.”

It was too late as Kila tried to back up. Some kind of extremely powerful, invisible magic blasted him out the front doors. Sending him flying through the air and slamming against the ground, rolling to a stop at the fountain.

“Whoa,” Sweetie Belle said, backing up along with me.

“That colt will never learn.” Al closed the doors and pulled out rag, wiping some dirt off the lever.

“What just happened?” Sweetie Belle asked, she moved in front of me.

“I think it’s time we speak, now that Jerard has married again.” Sweetie and I shared a moment looking at each other. He started walking, and we followed him going to the pool, and then to one of the pillars.

Tapping twice, a door opened showing a spiral staircase. A moment of hesitation made Sweetie Belle stop, but I went forward. At this point, death was still a release, so I had nothing left to really fear. Even being completely paralyzed would be better, at least then I couldn’t be a monster any more.

Author's Note

“OF coUrSe nOt!” she squeaked, making me let go of her.

Editor did not approve of this line.
Editing done by Refro check him out!