Blade

What little of the sun that was shining on that dull and grey day was now setting and Pinkamena was very tired from her work. Her shoulders ached and her stomach was growling with pain. Cherry had gone home to his wife, whom no doubt loved him very much, and Brolly had snuck out to his cabin about an hour early, leaving Pinkamena with the rest of the work.

The snow was nipping at her ankles yet again, and her teeth were chattering uncontrollably. Her flat mane was being blown around by the weak gusts, tangling it in some places. She could no longer feel her grip on the pickaxe, for her hooves had gone numb from the wind.

There was one rock left to be broken for that day. The thought of her shed’s quirky (but still functional) heater keeping her warm through the night made her feel a fair amount of confidence. She stood up, raised her pickaxe, and hammered it down. The rock shattered into a few pieces. No gems. She was grateful that she wouldn’t have to also make a trip to the mine cart.

A dismal shred of relief showed itself in Pinkamena’s heart and face. She grabbed the pickaxe with her mouth and began toward the busted wooden shed about three acres away.

Knock, knock.

Pinkamena stopped. Her blood ran cold. The hope was then trampled instantly by a tidal wave of fear. The voice was back. Her dose had worn off earlier than usual.

You’re losing your upper hoof, Pinkie. Maybe I’ll cut it off when I get out.

“No!” She shouted to the invisible evil.

Never did she bother her boss this late in the day and after the incident earlier in her shift, she didn’t want to see him at all for a good while. But he was the only one with her medicine, and there was no way she would brave the night, let alone another second with the voice breaking her down.

Pinkamena turned around and galloped toward Kanker’s office.

Brolly made you work late. You’d be asleep and away from me if you’d had just stopped him in his tracks, Pinkie. It said.

“Shut up!” She screamed to nothing. “Why won’t you leave me alone!?”

Brolly is lazy. Nobody likes him either. You should kill him, Pinkie.

Tears streamed from her eyes, yelling into the open field.

“Why do you hate me!? What did I do to you? Why!?”

You never listen to me, you stupid little bitch. NEVER. How come it’s so fucking hard for you to listen to me? What is so difficult about picking up a rock and beating somepony’s head in? What is so fucking hard? You’re around rocks all the time, Pinkie.

“No!” She bellowed. “No, NO, NO.”

Pinkamena burst in through the doors and dashed through the lobby for a second time that day. She kicked open the doors to Kanker’s office. Kanker was in his chair, eating from a bowl of cashews when he turned around to see his employee burst in.

“Whoa! What the fuck, Pinkamena?” He exclaimed loudly. His mouth had been full of cashews, so he had spit out quite a few chunks whenever he talked.

Pinkamena was breathing heavily. Her heart pounded in her chest, making the voice louder and quieter with every beat. Pinkamena dropped her pickaxe from her mouth and got on her knees.

“Kanker, I need more medicine! Please, just give it to me this once! I’ll pay you back somehow in the morning! I just want everything to be over!” Pinkamena beseeched.

For a moment, Kanker stopped chewing. Then, his trademark smirk spread ear-to-ear

“Hey, slow down, baby.” He smiled. “I’ve decided that from now on, if you want me to give it to you, you have to give it to me.”

Pinkamena was appalled. This very sentence said to her gave her a brief moment to think for herself. All was silent and all was blank. She looked at Kanker hard and saw him for what he really was.

Kanker was no boss. Kanker was no provider. He was a disgusting slob. A loser. Kanker had put on just enough weight to muscle out anyone who opposed him and that was his only form of authority. Kanker was socially disabled and he got what he wanted without any regard for anything. He was a lot like Pinkamena’s father. If Pinkie could reduce her father to cowardliness, she could just as easily try with Kanker.

The voice picked up on her confidence.

Finally standing up, eh? About time you did something else but waste matter.

Trying her best to ignore it, she got off her knees and glared at Kanker. Confusion riddled his face as his employee slammed her forelegs on his desk.

“Hey! What the big fuckin’ idea?”

Pinkamena grabbed his tie and pulled him up to her face. She scowled at him as hard as she could.

“No more of this, Kanker.” She said through her teeth. “I need that medicine.”

Kanker stared into her eyes, surprised at how quickly she had shifted.

“You’re going to give it to me, right now.”

Kanker just as quickly returned the stare and raised his hoof.

“Get the fuck off me, you stupid bitch!” He yelled before slamming right into her nose.

Pinkamena didn’t even realize it had happened until she was about halfway to the ground. She smacked onto the carpet and laid on her side, clutching her nose.

She screamed in pain.

Kanker got up from his chair and kicked her firmly in the stomach.

“Shut up!” He roared.

The kick had planted right into her gut and made her vomit. She hadn’t eaten much in a while, so most of it was stomach acid, burning her throat horribly. It went all over Kanker’s hind legs as he stood over her.

“Son of a bitch! You blew chunks all over me, numb cunt!” He yelled, kicking again.

Pinkamena let out a weak but audible ‘Oof’ as the hoof connected this time with her ribcage. Kanker took a moment to breathe heavily. He crouched down and grabbed Pinkamena’s head so that she was looking into his eyes now.

“I said listen earlier today, don’t you remember?” He asked calmly. “Don’t you EVER touch me again. I am your fucking GOD! I decide what happens around this shit-hole alright?!?!”

Pinkamena couldn’t breathe. The kick had knocked the wind out of her. She struggled to get more that a small breath in without having to instantly let it out.

Well done, Pinkie. The voice mocked, being accompanied by an echoing round of applause.

Pinkamena was lower than anything she could think of. Bravery was worth nothing on her part. She was a ragdoll in this world and everyone she ever met was a rambunctious child with an undying rage that sought to throw her around and abuse her.

Kanker dropped her, stood up and chuckled lightly. He walked over to his desk and took out Pinkamena’s medication.

“You want this?” He teased.

Pinkamena could do nothing but watch as he walked to the sink in the corner of the room, holding her pills with his magic.

“Please. No.” She mustered.

Kanker opened the lid to the bottle and turned it upside down. The pills fell from the bottle in a miniature shower and down the sink’s drain. All of her medicine was gone forever.

She was trapped with the voice for good.

“Ahhhh….” Kanker faked disappointment. “Oops.” He said, his smirk reclaiming it’s place on his ghastly face.

Kanker tossed the empty bottle at Pinkamena, landing on her face, making her flinch. She was in disbelief, praying that she hadn’t seen it properly. Tears fell from her eyes without consent, knowing she was to be forever tortured by a force she couldn’t run from.

You fool. Scolded the voice. Now you’ll have nothing to do but listen to me all day.

Unbridled misery flooded her. She couldn’t foresee the next day. Things were never going to be good or happy again. There was nothing left to hope for.

You should have listened to me before. Why don’t you ever listen to me?

“Go away. Please god, go away.” She whispered.

Kanker cocked his head, thinking she was talking to him.

“What?”

She didn’t care about Kanker. She didn’t care who heard her talking to the voice. It didn’t even matter anymore. Why would it matter now what she said out loud? When did it ever matter? Nobody loved or cared about her.

I’m never going away, Pinkie. I have some things to say and I want you to hear them.

“You’ve said enough. You’ve said plenty throughout my whole terrible life.” Pinkamena sniffled.

Kill your boss, Pinkamena. You know you can do it. What is stopping you?

Pinkamena had a thought. She no longer had anything to loose. She hadn’t been paid once the whole time she had been at the job. This whole time she had been working for her medicine. Now it was gone.

There was nothing left for Pinkamena. She had absolutely nothing to lose.

“I have no idea what you’re dibbling about.” Kanker started. “But you ain’t got no more pills, kid.”

Kanker chuckled one more time.

“There goes your fix.” He finished.

Pinkamena snapped.

Suddenly, she was angry. She was the angriest she had ever been in her entire life. She was angrier than she had been with her father on the day she left home. No. This was five hundred thousand times angrier. She was positively livid.

She started breathing heavily and she gritted her teeth. The fury boiled in her belly like a cauldron’s brew. The wrath of a million war gods empowered her being as she got up from the ground and onto her hind legs.

Kanker’s smirk melted into an unsure frown and his eyebrows rose, a bit scared by the sudden change.

Pinkamena spotted the pickaxe she had drug in. She walked over to it, picked it up, and gripped it in both hooves. She turned toward Kanker and glared at him, a lot harder this time.

“Fix?” She said to him.

“FIX!?!?” She screamed.

“I’LL GIVE YOU A FUCKING FIX!!!!”

Pinkamena let out a war cry as she ran toward Kanker at full speed on her hind legs.

Kanker had less than enough time to react before Pinkamena had reached him. He was frozen by the utter shock and confusion that had jolted through him in the few moments it took for his employee to dart up to where he stood.

Pinkamena stopped in front of him for no more than a smidge of an instant.

Then she smiled, raised her pickaxe, and hammered it down.

The pick burrowed downward about ten inches into Kanker’s neck.  It slashed his jugular vein, ripped through the muscle, and punctured one of his lungs.

Kanker felt every last nanometer of the length of rusty metal in his neck. It was very, very cold. The pain was blinding. It deeply throbbed and it was as if his shoulder was melting.

His tiny mouth let out what he could of the longest, loudest, most primal noise that had ever exited his body. His mind melted like his shoulder as whatever intelligence he had recycled itself back into nothing but pure instinct. The scream continued for too long.

The anger raged on in Pinkamena. She was not satisfied. Not at all.

Pinkamena regained her grip on the pick’s handle, and lifted it out of Kanker with ease.

The pick’s rusty texture further damaged the tissue as it exited. It felt like everything in him was being pulled out along with it like some morbid fishing hook that snagged his insides.

A petite fountain of blood flowed out of his neck and some of it splashed on Pinkamena’s face.

Pinkamena raised the pickaxe once again, and hammered it down with a grunt.

For Kanker, this happened in slow-motion. His eyes flew around the room. At last, they focused on one thing.

The very last thing that Kanker ever saw was Pinkamena’s cutie mark.

It was then that the pick plunged right into his eye socket and partially through the back of his skull. Kanker died instantly. The eye that had not been pulverized by the pick slowly rolled upward and into his head. His limbs grew limp.

Pinkamena dropped the pickaxe, now breathing slowly. Kanker’s body went down with the pickaxe, seeing that they were now one in a sense. He laid there on the ground, eyes rolled back, blood still flowing from his neck and now oozing black from his eye. Pinkamena only stared.

She had done it. She had finally fought back and taken control of her life. She had graduated from the ragdoll’s position. She was free.

Kanker was dead. She had killed him.

Suddenly, Pinkamena did nothing but smile.

She felt good. Oh so very good. Ecstasy filled her to the brim. Oh joy, oh rapture. Nothing had felt so good on earth. Vengeance was not but the tip of the iceberg. The sight of such a brutality and such a horrid fate for such a horrid soul made her brilliant with glee.

She had never felt joy like that before. It felt so good that she wanted to just keep smiling forever.

And in this joy, she noticed one other thing.

The voice had stopped.