Hotline Manehattan

Are you proud? Do you like hurting them?

It's okay, I like hurting them too. Their blood is nice and warm.

You're going to Tartarus, you're a terrible, horrid, disgusting excuse for a pony.

Where are you right now?

You sit on a chair at your dining table, nursing your headache and chewing on some three day old pizza. Casting the spell always makes you feel sick for a few days, not to mention the nightmares that follow your near deaths. The way that stallion had knocked your eye out, the way the teeth of that wrench dug into your skull made your coat stand on end. You don't really remember the pain, but the pure tactile sense of having your body beaten into pulp was enough to turn your stomach inside out.

You end up only eating half of one slice before pushing the rest to the side. You don't feel much like eating, even the half a slice was forced. You were expecting another package soon and going out with low blood sugar was a surefire way of getting yourself actually killed.

You muse on your pseudo immortality. When you live in a world without consequence what is left to do? You suppose you're doing it right now, murdering, letting your muscles work in overdrive, feeling that adrenalin rush as you crush someponies' skull. More than the killing though, this town needed to be cleaned up. Sure the tourists and even most of the locals lived well. But for us, the forgotten, the lower class, the workers, we had to put up with these ponies extortion long enough.

Your thoughts are cut off by another knock at the door. You slowly right yourself and head over to the door, you swing it open and find another box sitting on your stoop. As with the last you bring it inside and toss it on your kitchen table. But there is something else, a pink note with a drawing.

You pick up the note and look it over: Monsters seen at train station, many dead, brutally murdered.

You smirk to yourself as you read the article. ...appeared to be a loose diamond dog...

You love how easy it is to get away with it. Then again, the only ponies you killed were scum, no one besides them would be looking for you. You walk around and eventually pin the note to your wall. You crane your neck around, letting out a series of pops and cracks as you did.

You know what this is gonna be, and thus waste not time in heading to your bathroom and dyeing you body. You think it strange that the colors were based off some thousand year old legend but decide it's just to scare ponies that see us.

You stare at yourself in the mirror, your personality gone, replaced by legion. You don't know how many others are doing this, but you know there are at least two. It doesn't really matter to you, you're not doing it to make friends. Quiet the opposite in fact, you're doing it to make enemies, to put a dent in those thugs that think they rule this city.

You realize how long you've been looking at the mirror and decide to get to work. You rush into your kitchen and pull the box open. Same as before a note and a mask, this time of a phoenix. The note is far more interesting: Good work, continue to bring justice to these worthless excuses for mules. An address and times once again sat at the bottom.

You throw the mask in a saddle bag and put a jacket on. You hurry outside and hook yourself into your cart.

You pull up across the street from the target. It's a rundown apartment building with a few thugs out front. You hurry into a blocked off alley and pull your new mask on. You feel a sudden heat surge through your body as your legs start to tremble. You feel as if you could kick a building over if you tried. You walk out of the alleyway and are immediatly confronted by two thugs, "Well well...looks like another one." A fat looking pony snorts at you, "Tell ya what kid, you leave now and we might think about letting you go."

You stare at him, the other pony taking a step forward with a chain dangling from her mouth. You turn away from them, "Heh...good ide-" You rear your back legs up and buck the duo. One of your hooves breaking the fat pony's jaw and sending him to the floor. The other gasping for air as you landed a heavy kick across their ribs. You're in no mood to repeat your initial fuck up and decide to waste not time in stomping what little life was left in the duo. As you crush the chain pony's skull beneath your tread you're knocked to the ground. You manage to roll and end up on your feet as a bat is brought to your ribs. You wince in horrible pain as you hear your ribs break.

You manage to keep it together just long enough to headbutt the mare's muzzle, knocking the bat free and knocking her teeth out. On the ground you vengefully stomp along the mare's side, beating her until you can see a piece of shattered bone jut through her flesh.

You give a moments thought to using your spell to mend your ribs but decide a few broken bones for three lives was a fair trade. You do what little you can to mend your bones, mostly stemming the pain and keep them from getting any worse as you walked towards the apartment. You here loud music blaring from the inside as you push into the entry. The entire place is littered with empty bottles and other rubbish.

You figure the best place to start would be the music, from there you're sure other ponies will come running. You hurry up a flight of stairs until you reach the third floor. A pony with a goatee and a cigarette glances at you before charging you. You rear up and wait until he's within reach. You slam your hooves forward and send the cigarette flying from his mouth. He reels back before headbutting you. As pain swirls through your body you jerk your head up and jam your horn into his throat.

You charge forward, tearing the pony's insides to ribbons before throwing him off. Your head throbs as you try to steady yourself and make your way down the hall. You slowly turn the knob and hobble your way in. You take two steps before feeling a searing pain in your side. You whip your head around and see a pony driving a knife through your side and into your kidneys. You scream as you fall to your side. You see the crazed pony, knife in teeth, ready to end your life. You cast your spell and are forced to relive the stabbing in reverse. Once outside the door again you don't use the knob, instead bucking the door of the hinges and charging in.

You slide in sideways and buck your hips at the air, meeting your target half way and sending their head into the drywall. You look over to them and see a blood stained pipe now exposed in the wall. You don't feel like you hit them hard enough to send them into the wall that hard. Your thoughts are cut off by screaming. You pick up the knife and duck into a bathroom.

"He's dead!" Somepony screams, "We're gonna find you, and when we do, we're gonna make you suffer like the last one!"

You hide in the shower and wait. Soon enough the door slams open, cracking the wall and revealing an angry looking stallion with sunglasses. You immediately don't like him, and thus, kicked the door back into him. His neck is quickly crushed between the door and the frame. You put all your weight into it as you slowly strangle the stallion with the door.

Eventually he goes limp, and as you let the door go he slumps to the floor. You look at the stallion a final time before kicking him in the face and shattering his glasses. It was stupid and spiteful but it felt good.

You peek out of the small room and see a stallion searching room by room. With his body half in and half out of a doorway you charge him, knocking into his flank and sending his head into the door frame. He sits dazed for a moment before finding a knife at his throat. You lean in close and stare at him.

"Easy! Easy!" He tries to claw away, you jerk him back in place with your magic and press the knife deeper into his flesh, "Hey- hey listen- hey no, hey! Upstairs!" He points a hoof to the roof, "They're keeping him upstairs." You slowly lean away from him, "Hey I helped you right? You're gonna let me go, right?" He smiles wide.

You start to contemplate what to do with him, cut off by a loud thud from behind. You pin the stallion with your foreleg and turn around. A pony wrapped up in a crazy outfit and a hat is staring at you. They stare at you for a moment before taking off.

You turn back to the stallion and slam his head into the door frame a few times. A small bit of blood coming from a cut tells you it's enough. You're not supposed to show mercy but it's hardly a mercy to rot away in a cell for years and years.

You run out of the room and give chase. You're undoubtedly headed to the same place, what ever that funky looking pony wants it's going to get in your way. You make it back to the stairs when you have to stop. The deep bass throbbing through the entire building was making your doubtless concussion all the worse. Headbutting ponies was a surefire way to keep them down but the toll it was taking on you was physically impairing.

Each heavy thud of the music, each step on the hardwood stairs, each rumble and vibration was making you nauseous. You feel like you're dying as you make it to the next floor. No guards. You decide to keep going.

You're half way up the next set when suddenly somepony started screaming as they tumbled down the stairs. You sidestep them as they bash their head on the steps. You fight through your growing headache and charge after the mystery pony.

You find a similar scene at the fifth floor, bodies strewn outside an apartment door. Screams and thuds resonating through the walls. This is it. You charge in and see a couple bodies strewn across the room. All unconscious. You hurry, going room from room until you run across a dead pony strapped to a chair. You know who this is, or rather was. The black dye was a dead giveaway.

So is this what you were here to do, if this was a rescue it was a failure, if this was about revenge then you aren't about to disappoint. You walk back into the main room and start slitting throats. One by one they went from asleep to dead as you cut their throats wide open.

You drive the knife into the last and give it a twist as you hear a low moan from another room. You don't bother pulling the knife out, instead charging off and slamming into the moaning door. You're instantly reminded of your ribs as you nearly buckle.

You stay standing just long enough to see the mystery pony hovering over a cream mare with a light blue striped mane bound on the floor. You move to fight them but they jump through a window. You rush over to the window, it's pitch black.

You turn to the mare on the ground. She is beautiful, young, very young. What in the name of the goddess was she doing here?

You decide it doesn't matter and levitate her onto your back, "No!" She kicks weakly, "No more...please."

You feel a sudden guilt as you carry her past the bodies and down the stairs. You manage to make it to the ground floor before falling to your knee. You limp outside and see where the pony had jumped, they must have been a pegasus because there was no way an earth or unicorn pony would have survived that.

Once again you try to focus, the music had left, but was replaced by a loud ringing as you were validated on your concussion thought. You do your best to hurry and carry the mare across the street and into the alley.

You slowly load her into your cart and grab your jacket, "Please just let me go, please...I'm sorry."

You want to say something, you wish you could. You feel at the scar on your throat before pulling the jacket on and hooking yourself to the cart.

You make sure the mare is still bound, you don't want her jumping out at full gallop. Not that she could, the way she was kicking it was obvious she was hurt in some way, maybe less hurt than you but still hurt enough that it would impair her.

You're going to have to skip your usual ritual and head straight home. You toss the mask in the back of the cart and hurry off.

You pull up and stash your cart. The mare didn't kick as you set her on your back. You hurry into your apartment and set the mare in your bed. You leave her bound as you take a shower. You feel your actual appearance might be a bit more comforting than the blood stained nightmare you are right now.

Once clean you hurry and find the mare whimpering. You find a pair of scissors and start cutting her free. You leave her eyes covered as you run into your kitchen and find a glass of water. You hold it against her lip. She purses them and tried to pull away, "No!" She whips her head back and forth at the contact. You hold her head still and slowly tip the glass until the water makes contact.

She realizes what it is and opens her mouth. You let her head go as you slowly water her. She finishes gasping for air, "Thank- you- thank you so much."

You smile, once again wishing you could speak. You pull a sheet over her and get on top of her, unsure of what she might do when her vision is returned you don't want her wrecking your apartment. You levitate the scissors to the back of her head and snip the cloth blindfold. You throw it away and set the scissors aside.

Your mind goes blank as two bright cyan eyes blink hazily at you. Her mouth hangs open, you quickly cover it with a hoof. You put some weight on her as you force your other hoof to your mouth. You wait until she nods, then slowly remove your hoof. You wait until she's had some time to look around, and once it's apparent she's not going to move you step off the bed.

"I was...the ponies...then...who are you?" She muttered hazily. You open your mouth to speak, a useless gesture that immediately reminds you of your stupid agreement. She stares at you for an answer. You get flustered before pointing to your throat, a thin scar running up your throat.

She takes a moment before nodding, "Well I..." She goes to move, immediately crumpling back down on her left back leg. She shrieks as she tumbles back to the bed. You hurry forward and pin her down. Once she's resubdued you slowly lift up the sheet and take a look at her leg. It's badly bruised and swollen, but nothing appears to be broken, "It hurts!"

You look at her and nod, you point at her, then to the bed, then make a sleeping gesture. She takes a moment to process it, "Stay here, sleep here? I don't even know where here is!" She starts growing afraid as she kicks her leg. You can see tears forming up at the edge of her eyes. You can't take it. You move to the edge of the bed and pull her against you.

She takes a moment before wrapping a hoof around your back and holding on tight. She chants her fear over and over again as you try to calm her down. After several minutes she seems to calm down, "They'll come for you..." She mumbles, "If they find out you took me...they'll come for you."

You look at her, the thought of the ponies you've killed crosses your mind. You shake your head hard, "Yes they will!"

You stomp your hoof hard and shake your head again. You stare at her for a long time, eventually breaking eye contact and feeling a surge of pain throb in your head, "They will come, I know it." You turn to her in a mix of pain and anger. You charge over to her and grab her by the shoulders, you shake her hard before staring at her. Once you've got her complete attention you mouth the words, "If they do, they die."

She finally realizes the depth of your communications and stares at you, "You...you're a bad pony?" You cringe and look away, you look her dead in the eyes and nod, "Then why'd you help me."

There's a long pause as you let her go and turn away. You never thought you would regret losing your voice so much, but this was agony. She look at her a final time before pointing at the bed. You walk out and spend the rest of the night sitting at your kitchen table in the dark.

You think saving her makes you better? It doesn't, nothing will change what you are, a killer, a killer pony. That's all you'll ever be is a killer, a murder, a monster, a nightmare!